Un lugar solitario para morir

Mountain climbers Rob (Alec Newman), Ed (Ed Speleers), Alison (Melissa George), Jenny (Kate Magowan) and Alex (Garry Sweeney) run across a suspicious pipe coming out of the ground in the Scottish highlands. They find a girl who doesn't speak English held as a prisoner. Rob and Alison make a dangerous descend to contact the authorities while the rest of the group make a long walk out. An unknown person sabotages the climb and kills Rob. The group reunites but are hunted by the bad guys.

The first hour is an amazing thriller. It's a great setup which builds up to an amazing place. I love Melissa George as this heroine. It's a great movie and then they get to town. It falters as the movie which started out as a stripped down outdoors thriller turns into a messy crossfire. There are too many new characters being injected late in the movie. It doesn't fit the other parts of the movie. It should have stayed in the wilderness. It shouldn't have a whole new set of characters. It could climax at a small settlement. This could have a great indie thriller.

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

Basically the anti-Kill List, instead of slowly building to an incredible conclusion this one starts off with the intensity at ten and then peaks way too soon, leading to a disappointing final act. That doesn't take away from the power of the first hour though. The premise is horror simplicity; a group of friends go up to the mountains to do some climbing and stumble across something they weren't supposed to.

The first hour leads them down this dangerous road of bullets and blood that honestly had me straining to catch my breathe. A lot of, "Holy crap!" moments almost from the start and the insanity just builds as more characters are introduced and the intensity is matched by the pure mystery of just what in the hell is going on in these mountains.

Of course like most cases of such a promising start, as we get more answers to who these people are and what their motivation is things become significantly more mundane and lead to a final act that just equates to waiting for what you know is going to happen to happen. It's really disappointing because that middle act has got to be some of the most intense stuff I've seen all year and I'd say it's worth watching for that alone, even if it doesn't pay off on it's promise.

The trailer for this film made it look like an excellent little low-budget mountaineering thriller, set in the Scottish wilds. Melissa George and buddies being stalked by a gang of human traffickers, no doubt being picked off one by one by a rifle with telescopic sights. Hard to get wrong, right? Well, no, actually, because A LONELY PLACE TO DIE is the perfect example of a good premise going astray.

The opening sequence of this film could accurately be described as nail-biting. The subsequent events, setting up the characters and then the big twist in the woods – all are portrayed accurately. The chase through the wilderness scenes are fine. Then, at around halfway through, this film suddenly falls to pieces. The writers just haven't got a clue how to sustain momentum. The action moves to a town, and that turns out to be the worst possible thing they could do, because then it becomes a ludicrous shoot-em-up.

Melissa George, by now a seasoned veteran of horror/thrillers, makes for an engagingly tough heroine. Sean Harris has always been an ice-cold villain and doesn't disappoint. But wait, what's all this? A whole new trio of leading characters, brought into the action late on, suddenly taking over the limelight? Despite Eamonn Walker being a gifted actor, the shift in focus just doesn't work. And if I see ONE more scene in which the characters meet up with a cop who then gets shot, I'll scream.

By the end, this is tripe of the highest order, and a real disappointment. It started off so well too. Once again, check out the Spanish thriller KING OF THE HILL to see how it SHOULD be done...

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.