Barbara Nedeljáková is perhaps best known to Eli Roth purists as one half of the seductive duo in Roth’s Hostel. In Just One Drink, a short psychological thriller from Andrew de Burgh, she applies herself to a different kind of seduction.
Two recent college graduates, Steve (de Burgh) and Derek (Isaac Urden), seem to content getting stoned and waxing lyrical about the evolution of man. When Steve is invited to to a Hollywood New Year’s Eve party by a woman called Tamara (Nedeljáková), they decide to chance it. After all, who wouldn’t want to get messy in Hollywood, right? Does it matter that Steve has no recollection of Tamara, despite her insistence they’ve met before? Well, not to these guys. Things get even stranger when they arrive at Tamara’s and she offers them a drink laced with more than alcohol.
From this point onwards, Just One Drink mutates from a potential Dear Penthouse letter into a sort of Hostel-lite situation as the two men discover what Tamara is really up to. De Burgh has a firm grasp of tension, allowing it to simmer as the story progresses. Equally, he manages to pull off a few twist and turns along the way that don’t overstuff the film’s short running time. Given time and a budget, it’ll be interesting to see what else he has up his sleeve.
If you want to see the full film, you can check it out here.
Early Bird Film Society 