A Lonely Place to Die - Todesfalle Highlands

Great locations and nice production with some lovely set pieces. I enjoyed this... solid film making deffo give it a while.

A group of mountain climbers enjoy a trip to the Highlands of Scotland . During a trek they find a young child buried alive in a chamber . The child who is from Eastern Europe and is obvious she's been kidnapped . The group quickly come to realise that the kidnappers are nearby and will do anything to get the child back and eliminate any witnesses to their crime

Julian Gilbey had previously directed RISE OF THE FOOT SOLDIER which I rated as a very underrated movie . SOLDIER was a tough violent thriller and Gilbey showed shades of being perhaps a future British version of Scorsese . What stopped the movie from being a mini-masterpiece is that like so many British films that just fall short of greatness ( Hello Danny Boyle ) it's a film of two halves . The first half charting the rise of Carlton Leach football hooligan to feared gangster then it effectively rights him out of the narrative and focuses on his associates who later became victims of a high profile mass murder . When this movie was released one wondered if Gilbey could make a more sustained focused film ? I don't think he has

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE is a British answer to the backwoods brutality sub-genre horror movie with a rather obvious nod to John Carpenter . According to the trivia section on this page Gilbey took up rock climbing while making the film and it shows - perhaps too obviously as the first third of the movie has perhaps a few too many self congratulatory scenes featuring characters hanging off a ledge and it's not until about 35 minutes in that the film plot proper starts to take off . Previous to this we have to put up with long dialogue heavy scenes that don't add anything to the storyline

Sean Harris plays the main villain and I've always thought of him as being one of Britain's most criminally underrated actors . He's great at playing violent psychos and as can be expected here he's not playing a romantic lead . Oh to have a scene where he has the heroine held at knifepoint growling " Ah'm going to carve you up b*tch " but this never happens because plotting takes precedence over casting and unfortunately the longer the film goes on the plot becomes more contrived and unlikely with people being in the right ( Or wrong place depending on how you look at it ) place and people reacting in ways that seem unlikely

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE is a relatively diverting thriller . It's certainly not the most credible one you'll see but there again who said movies had to be credible ? That said it is fairly uneven and you're able to recognise the faults that should have been corrected at draft screenplay level . As it stands it's a film that could have been better

This movie started off well with an interesting idea, but somehow ran out of steam, or commitment, about half way through.

Melissa George and her friends go climbing in Scotland and stumble across a secret buried in the woods. They try and go for help but discover that they're not alone. The movie starts off as slow burning and intriguing, with plenty of sweeping shots of the rugged Scottish landscape, it then changes abruptly about half way through, losing all of its subtlety and becomes a standard chase movie with guns. It's almost as if the director lost their nerve and decided to go for blood and glory just in case the audience gets a little bored. Some scenes seem to be thrown in just so someone else can be killed, and the body count by the end of the movie is a bit on the high side.

The acting is fine, and I don't have any huge issues with the script, it's just it could of been a nice little thriller rather than half a good movie, and half a predictable one.

A Lonely Place to Die is the fourth feature from British Director Julian Gilbey. His last film was the acclaimed Rise of the Footsoldier way back in 2007. This film marks a very different change of pace for the director and what he delivers here is a striped back bare bones Horror survival thriller. For the most part ALPTD works. Its 1hr and 40 min running time rattles along at a fairly lively pace. It's the films third act coupled with its confused tone that eventually drags it down.

Mellissa George plays one of a group of five friends that go climbing in the Scottish highlands. Early on they discover a small girl buried in a box underground. They decide to free the girl and go for help. Little do they realize that the Kidnappers are in hot pursuit! ALPTD opens with a nerve rattling climbing sequence, from here it builds pretty effortlessly with a number of nail biting senses has a game of cat and mouse is played out in the Scottish wilderness. Little is actually learned about the cast but the film moves at such a pace that this isn't really an issue. Deaths come almost from nowhere and this is one of the films strengths. The fact that is fair game on any of the cast members really adds to the suspense. Mellissa George is the only real stand out from the cast and she is excellent here making the most of here thinly conceived character. She is easily able to portray both venerable and tough and this up there with Triangle has her best performance. The cinematography is amazing with shots of the mountains and scenery really adding to the isolation of their surroundings. Some of the hand-held style camera work adopted during the chase sequences adds an extra bit of flare which really lifts them above the average.

It's a shame that the film was not able to maintain the tension and suspense throughout its whole running time. The third acts arrives has the setting shifts to a local town during a Wicker man style festival. The departure from the wilderness sees the pacing almost ground to a complete halt. The direction of the film also changes. Before this there the film had more of a horror feel to it. The change in setting and the introduction of several new characters moves the film very much into the ransom thriller area. This change in tone is to serve and makes the film feel almost like two separate films in one. The third acts slow down also exposes the problems with the script. Poorly written characters being chased through the woods in a horror film is one thing, being asked to care about poorly written characters during a hostage thriller is a different story altogether. Without anyone to care about a feeling of indifference takes over. Has it stands A Lonely Place to Die is a fairly entertaining if standard film that is worth a watch. There are elements there that could have made it a lot more memorable.

I was not entirely sure what to expect prior to watching 'A Lonely Place to Die'; the plot intrigued me however after reading a multitude of negative reviews I was uncertain this film would be enjoyable.

This lack of certainty was unjustified, as I found this movie very entertaining. The pacing is spot-on and the acting is solid throughout; in addition to this, the film was not too predictable, therefore I was more than happy to see this movie through until the end. Sean Harris is also, in my opinion, a key contributor to my positive opinion of this film, as he is expectantly brilliant as always.

Overall, what stops this film from being fantastic is the lack of depth, characterisation and stand-out moments, however if you are looking for an interesting, entertaining British film with a few fresh ideas and solid acting, this is worth your time.