Sola

This is a low budget film but the acting and cinematography are on point.

They did a great job making the bad guy look really creepy. In his first appeance on screen my wife says "Oh, that guy's got the serial killer look down".

The protagonist is likeable, carrying some emotional baggage, and even though she can't even figure out how to fit a houseplant into a half empty trailer, you'll root for her just the same.

If you decide to watch it, go in knowing that the protagonist will make idiotic decisions, over and over again. The kind of decisions you see in a slasher movie when the girl has to go see what the noise is in the closet after everyone else at band camp has been murdered. You'll see things coming from a mile away, but stick around to find out if it actually plays out the way you predicted.

But it's a b-movie thriller. What else are you going to expect? Half the fun of these kinds of movies is the exasperation that goes along with yelling "you idiot, don't go in there", and "ah, no way, that's bs" at your tv screen. Good popcorn flick for a sunday evening, and even better if you watch it with somene else to share in the frustration. :P.

I spent most of the movie saying: Why would she do that?

Why didn't she tell anyone?

Girl...don't say that! Don't tell him that!

I wanna root for her but at this rate..nah.

Maybe my mom taught me how to travel safely as a young lady...and this girl just didn't know. But I hope everyone watching learned WHAT NOT TO DO! Ahhhhhhhh!

Ok. Aside from that, Not the worst thriller I've watched this summer. I'm just still SO MAD AT THIS CHARACTER, it was hard to enjoy the movie being so upset with her choices.

Scary enough for me.

If you have ever traveled alone in the middle of the night, this movie perfectly reflects your anxiety about the stranger in the car next to you.

This guy is the monster of nightmares. No supernatural powers, no CGI, just human evil.

This movie is just really hard to watch. A girl that just had a scary encounter and stops alone, far away from her car at a shady trucker pitstop. And this is not even one of the things that annoyed me during the movie. None of the characters make any sense at all how they behave. Besides how can you keep meeting the guy all over the woods? Just nonsense!

Smart, suspenseful & straightforward, Alone is a lean-n-mean survival horror that employs the genre elements in effective doses to deliver a tense, thrilling & terrifying ride. Packing a simple premise and implementing a minimal approach to bring it to life, this sturdily crafted chiller also benefits from believable performances from its cast and is gripping from the get-go.

Directed by John Hyams, the film doesn't wait too long to introduce the villain, and is up-n-running with the main plot almost right after acquainting us with our protagonist. While the story doesn't break any new grounds, Hyams is still able to get plenty of mileage out of the basic setting & structure by keeping things grounded at all times and allowing the situation & surroundings to heighten the suspense.

The tension-building is carried out with precision by letting our anticipation come into play and the cat-n-mouse scenario that ensues once the scene moves into the wilderness only makes the ride all the more arresting. Jules Willcox aptly articulates her character's fear & predicament while Marc Menchaca plays the antagonist with stone-cold demeanour. Each scene between the two is nail-biting and both actors play their part responsibly.

Overall, Alone is an intelligently directed & brilliantly acted example of its genre that's more than aware of its strengths & limitations and is executed with such flair & simplicity that our investment in the story is almost instantaneous. It is efficient in its storytelling, calculated in its handling of elements and unrelenting in ratcheting up the nerves. Add to that, it is briskly paced, tightly edited and doesn't overstay its welcome. In short, a solid entry in survival horror subgenre.