DIGITAL / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 26TH

We’ve all experienced a little bit of road rage at some time, either on the receiving end or dishing it out, but we imagine nothing as bad as what is experienced in the tense Dutch drama Tailgate.

Hans (Jeroen Spitzenberger) and his wife Diana (Anniek Pheifer) is taking a trip to his mother’s with their two daughters. They’re running late and Hans is getting a bit irate. On the road, Diana keeps pointing out that he’s going over the speed limit, but in true toxic masculinity mode, he shrugs it off. When he’s stuck behind a white van, his anger gets the better of him; honking and aggressively tailgating the van. The van driver slams his brakes down briefly, causing Hans to panic and lose his temper more. Unfortunately for them, we’ve already seen what this white van man is capable of in the pre-credits scene in which he uses his industrial chemical spray to kill a cyclist. For Hans and family, things are going to get terrifying.

With such a simple premise, it’s easy to see where the story is going, but what writer/director Lodewijk Crijns does is make the prey as dislikeable as the foe. It’s hard not to side with Ed (Willem de Wolf), the van driver, when he calmly attempts to get an apology from Hans for his aggressive driving. Stubborn to the core, Hans loses all respect from the audience (and likely his family) in his reactions. It’s only when Ed goes full-on psychopath that the sympathy comes back to the family – but not necessarily Hans.

There’s plenty of tension as the family are aware Ed’s following them, these scenes are excellently shot and all the cast are believable – even the kids (Roosmarijn van der Hoek and Liz Vergeer), who let’s face it, usually let the side down acting-wise – and as things progress, the terror is palpable, almost reaching Duel levels at times.

The white van men usually gets a bad rap for their driving, so it’s ironic that this one’s is impeccable, but you wouldn’t want to cross him!