An underrated crime thriller starring Emmy-winning actor Jeremy Allen White is now available to stream for free. The actor has enjoyed an already impressive career since breaking onto the scene in 2011 as Lip Gallagher in Shameless. In addition to numerous indie films like The Rental and Fingernails, White played Kerry Von Erich in A24’s The Iron Claw and, of course, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto in FX and Hulu’s The Bear. He is also currently filming Deliver Me from Nowhere, a Bruce Springsteen biopic in which White plays the Boss himself.
Sometimes entries in an actor’s filmography are released to little fanfare and await rediscovery. That’s certainly the case with Bad Turn Worse, also known as We Gotta Get Out of This Place, a 2013 crime thriller starring White, Mackenzie Davis (Speak No Evil, Terminator: Dark Fate), Logan Huffman (Final Girl), William Devane (The Dark Knight Rises), Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural, Mullholland Drive), and John Gries (The White Lotus). It was directed by brother duo Simon and Zeke Hawkins, from a script by Dutch Southern. The film is currently streaming for free on Tubi.
Set in rural Texas, the plot involves three teens, Bobby, Sue, and B.J. – White, Davis, and Huffman, respectively – who steal $20,000 from a local gangster, Giff, played by Pellegrino. When Giff discovers the theft, he forces the trio into a plot to rob a wealthy mob boss named Big Red (Devane). The film is inspired by and pays homage to hard-boiled writer Jim Thompson, the Oklahoma-born author of works like The Killer Inside Me, The Grifters, and The Getaway (all of which have been adapted into Hollywood films, in some cases multiple times).
Bad Turn Worse Features Another Critically Acclaimed Performance From White
White received much praise for his turn as Bobby in the crime thriller. In his review of the film for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico wrote, “The young star of Shameless has a face that Thompson would have loved – all sunken, sleepy eyes that disguise a mind that’s always deciphering what to do next.” Bruce DeMara of the Toronto Star called White “nicely understated,” while James Marsh of ScreenAnarchy singled out his performance as particularly strong.
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Bad Turn Worse currently holds a fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 80% positive critics score based on 41 reviews. One of the positive reviews, the aforementioned Toronto Star piece by Bruce DeMara, states, “Bad Turn Worse is a taut noir tale, bolstered by a trio of excellent lead performances and a well-plotted script. It’s a pleasantly assured debut from sibling directors that offers the promise of good things to come.” Those good things never came to be, however, as the Hawkins brothers have yet to make another film. Screenwriter Southern went on to write and direct the 2023 thriller Only the Good Survive, a similarly Thompson-esque tale about a heist gone wrong, a criminal in custody, and a sheriff with possible sinister secrets.
Bad Turn Worse
- Release Date
- August 15, 2014
- Director
- Simon Hawkins
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
- Writers
- Dutch Southern
- Producers
- Brian Udovich , John H. Lang
- Character(s)
- B.J. , Sue , Bobby , Big Red , Sheriff Shep , Giff , Ernesto