Hallow Road

In the categories "disturbingly realistic" and "true nightmares you really don't want to go through yourself", Hallow Road is a film that scores very high. Director Babak Anvari ("I Came By") delivers a very intense and compelling thriller here, even though the story largely takes place in one enclosed location (a car) and has only two main characters (and also a few voices over the phone).

The concept is simple, but that makes it even more efficient. In the middle of the night, parents Maddie and Franck receive a panicky phone call from their teenage daughter Alice. She caused an accident with her father's car. The car is stuck and damaged, but - much worse - there is another girl lying motionless on the road. The parents jump in the car and stay in touch with Alice, but during the long journey the problems pile up. Is the girl who was hit by a car still alive? Where is the ambulance? Why did Alice drive to such a remote place? Was she sober? Will this incident destroy the rest of her life?

There are 2 main reasons why "Hallow Road" is the most haunting and unforgettable thriller you will see this year (and perhaps also in the coming years). First and foremost because it is - simply - a realistic scenario. The chance this horror will happen to yourself, or someone close to you, is much greater than, say, moving into a haunted house or having to fight werewolves and zombies. You read about hit-and-run accidents almost daily, and behind each of these incidents is a tragic story for both sides. Secondly, because Matthew Rhys and - especially - Rosamund Pike give away such incredibly strong performances. Director Anvari felt that the story couldn't just end like a random news fact, and so there are some weird twists in the script towards the end. Still very absorbing, though. The ending is completely open to interpretation, and that too is the best they could have done. Powerful film, recommended!

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Maddie (Rosamund Pike), a paramedic, and her husband, Frank (Matthew Rhys), are a middle class couple, who receive a late night phone call from their teenage daughter, Alice (Megan McDonnell), who has been involved in a hit and run incident. The pair race to the scene, keeping in touch on speaker phone, but as they do, tensions erupt between the couple, before things take a sinister turn.

For those not lulled in by the big new Mission: Impossible film, this little (virtually un) publicised film might be a decent distraction. After checking the running time, it becomes quickly evident that it's another addition from the 'real time' staple (with events playing out exactly as they occur with no cuts) , the last I can remember being Paul Andrew Williams's 2010 effort Cherry Tree Lane.

In a film with pretty much only two cast members, Pike and Rhys play well off each other, and develop an effective chemistry as a couple with conflicting approaches and attitudes towards their daughter, and what may have led to and how to resolve her current predicament. Likewise, McDonnell does well in a voiceover role, descending further into distress and disbelief while her happy, carefree profile picture stares back at us. It's all genuinely compelling and inspired , until an unwelcome supernatural element is added to the story that detracts from the realism of the events. Indeed, it's at this late point that we suddenly learn the film is set at Halloween (which may have been foreshadowed by the Hallow in the title.)

It remains genuinely suspenseful until the end, which comes in not the most comprehensible fashion, with matters feeling unresolved. Could have been highly recommendable, if it had just stayed on track. ***

When parents "Maddie" (Rosamund Pike) and husband "Frank" (Matthew Rhys) get a call from their teenage daughter to say she has been in a road accident, they immediately get into their car and head to the quite far distant and remote scene. The rest of the film sees the couple trying to think what is best to do as the paramedic mother tries to help with an immediate problem whilst the father takes a more long-term and sacrificial view in the event of a worst case scenario. Things only get more fraught when another couple encounter "Alice" first and her folks become increasingly concerned that their "help" might only make matters even worse! With only the intensity of their car as the scenario as this all takes place via the telephone, and what I must admit was probably the slowest and/or safest driving to the site of an accident I've ever witnessed on film (or anywhere else, for that matter) we are introduced to a couple with demons galore and a somewhat confused sense of the ridiculous and of their own priorities. It's that very superficiality and flakiness that makes this a bit more potent than your average thriller and at times it has a characterful intensity akin to a late night radio play with limited visuals and audio: just two people and an increasingly effective and frenzied script. Rhys tends to overact a bit but Pike and the gripping pace of the film deliver something that asks what we might do for our kids, but in a much less typical and frankly more pragmatic fashion. It's only eighty minutes long and that really helps to keep the film focussed and though it isn't a film you are likely to recall for very long, it does work well enough on a big screen.

Horror thrives in confined, singular locations-and "Hallow Road" is no exception.

While technically set across a few places, the core of the film unfolds almost entirely inside a car, driven by tense, unsettling dialogue that rarely lets up.

It's hard to discuss this film without revealing too much, but that's the thrill of film criticism: unpacking themes without spoiling the experience.

Directed by Babak Anvari, "Hallow Road" fits neatly into the "dashcam cinema"-a horror sub-genre where most of the story unfolds through dashboard or onboard camera footage, heightening realism and claustrophobia.

The film's strength lies in the performances of its three leads: Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys as a married couple, and Megan McDonnell as their daughter, Alice. Together, they balance parental instinct with quiet dread, delivering performances that emotionally anchor the film.

When Alice calls her mother in a panic-having hit and killed a girl on the remote Hallow Road in the fictional town of Ashfolk-it sets off a psychological mystery told almost entirely through a phone call and in-car dialogue.

The cinematography is cloaked in shadow, using the night not just as a setting, but as a symbol of the unknown-where every frame hums with mystery, suppressed fear, and the creeping sense that something is just out of sight.

As a viewer, you're confined with the parents-just their car, a phone, and Alice's disembodied voice guiding you through a spiral of guilt, fear, and confusion.

The film explores how language can disturb more deeply than imagery, and how those we trust most can become sources of dread.

"Hallow Road" is a haunting meditation on parenting, moral ambiguity, and the fragile boundary between safety and threat.

It's the kind of horror that doesn't scream-it lingers, whispering long after the screen fades to black.

Too many films bombard you with so much that you become complacent to what you are watching..not Hallow Rd.

This film may sound very simple, 2 people in a car driving to help their daughter, but it keeps you interested and engaged throughout.

I can't tell you too much as ill ruin it for you but my advice is pay attention as you will be piecing everything you have seen together at the end.

Excellent acting from Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys and tight direction from Babak Anvari. He was behind I Came By which i also enjoyed on Netflix. If youve seen that then you will know to expect the unexpected Go see and enjoy the debate afterwards!