Hallow Road - A Smartly Done Pychological Thriller in Confined Space With Surprising Twist

During the last two weeks, my wife and I went on another vacation out of the country and therefore did not have the chance to see any new movies in the theater. Despite still have access to certain streaming services, I focused on continuing old series rather than watching new releases so I would not feel "obligated" to write my views about them. Anyway on my flight home using Garuda Indonesia, I watched this film that I never heard of but had interesting premise. All right then, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Awaken at 2 AM in the morning, Maddie (Rosamund Pike - The Wheel of Time TV series, The Informer etc) decided to clean her kitchen when she got a call from her teenaged daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell - The Rainmaker TV series etc). Maddie's husband Frank (Matthew Rhys - Perry Mason 2020 TV series, Seal Team etc) who also woke up was concerned on Alice whereabouts. It was later revealed that Alice had taken Frank's car and stormed out after they had a huge fight.

Apparently Alice was involved in car accident with a female victim in a remote location. The panic Frank and the more level headed Maddie immediately went with Maddie's car to meet Alice. But things gotten more complicated for the family.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Now that was some experience. This film was quite extraordinary in the sense that it was mostly shown inside the car where Maddie and Frank were driving to the accident location while occassionally conversing with Alice over hear handphone. The nice thing was the intensity felt as the story progressed with more information revealed. Amazingly for me, the film was kept suspenseful with just the dialogues and expressions shown by the main cast. 

I thought the director Babak Anvari (unfamiliar name to me but he did directed Netflix movies such as Wounds and I came By) did a solid job here. But to me the ones who made this movie so intense was the lead cast. Both Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys were fantastic in their roles by showing their panic, distress, frustrated, angry and other emotions. Megan McDonnell was equally awesome with her own expressions despite only through her voice. Obviously the part that made me in awe was the surprising horrifying twist that I did not see coming. My wife on the other hand though, she had a feeling since the beginning which turned out to be correct (just another example of how good she is in guessing plot twist). Btw, I watched this first before recommending her to see it.

The film only had duration of 80 minutes including closing credit. I fast forwarded it and found there was no mid or post end credit scene. However, I did notice something really interesting in the cast section which made me admired more of the lead cast. The musical score was quite OK as it added the suspense and the drama. After finding out more on the movie, apparently it was pretty new and was only released in UK & Ireland plus a limited release during Halloween this year in the US. The rest was shown in film festivals in several countries. Obviously it was not released in Indonesia, so I was quite happy that I got the chance to see this on the flight.

Overall to me this is a smart little psychological thriller drama with a touch of horror. It was quite enjoyable and got a surprising twist which may or may not be easily guessed by audience. Critics seemed to be impressed as proven by its high score, though not too sure about audience views in general. So if you are flying Garuda Indonesia, you can give this a try. Or maybe just wait till it's available via online streaming in the near future.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars