A lean mean car share…. 

Recalling the memories of Stephen Knight’s 2013 thriller LOCKE that just had Tom Hardy in his car, on a phone which generated knuckle clenching tension and five-star reviews, Babak AnvarI’s HALLOW ROAD offers a similar set-up, some unbearable moments of terror, even though the eventual arrival is vastly different. 

Acted fantastically throughout by both Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys who for most of the 80 minutes running time are sat in a car, taking a long drive into the woods while on the speakerphone to their daughter, both going through a huge turmoil that is every parent’s worst nightmare. 

A lingering opening in which we see the aftereffects of a family dinner that hints of something gone amiss. The fact that when the phone starts ringing we see that Pike’s Maddie and Rhys’s Frank are in separate rooms suggests a fragile atmosphere, reasons yet not explained, but a call from their daughter Alice (voiced by Megan McDonnell) distressed and pleading for help, having been in a car accident and apparently hurting someone in the process. 

Plot-wise that is it. Both parents jump in the car and drive to their daughter who is nearly forty minutes away, somewhere deep in a forest, but it’s from here that the film starts to crackle in tension as the flaws in the relationship of mother, father and daughter begin to surface. An argument of not putting the car in for service fizzles, what their daughter should do next reaches boiling point, Maddie, a medical professional wanting to make sure Alice does the right thing, like phone for an ambulance, but all Frank is concerned about is protecting his child. Who is right or wrong? The film will no doubt strike many conversation pieces and what about the person who Alice has apparently hit with her car? 

A grim sound of CPR will make you wince, but as the parents get closer to Hallow Road, things turn from a family in despair to hints of something else. Is Alice lying about certain things? Whose headlights can Alice see in the distance? And without any spoilers, a further plot inclusion adds a supernatural element to the mix which may leave you breathless. 

The final resolution may leave a few cold, causing endless debates when the final credits roll and there is no way this review can even hint about certain elements that occurred, but make no mistake, it’s a road trip that you dare not miss, a nightmare plight for any parent watching. 

4 Hatchets out of 5