There are scary movies where everything is fleshed out, where filmmakers and craftspeople show a nightmare in all its horrifying detail. In those kind of films, jump scares and reveals can even be a relief, allowing the tension and anticipation to deescalate so you can move on to the next thrill.
Filmmaker Babak Anvari’s “Hallow Road,” in theaters Friday, is the opposite. Written by William Gillies, “Hallow Road” is the kind of minimalistic thriller that knows that sometimes all you need to do is establish the right mood and your audience’s imagination will take it from there. It is all ambiguity and escalation, and relief is not in the cards.
The film begins at 2 a.m., panning across a leafy forest floor to a bloodied sneaker on the ground before cutting to a long, eerie shot inside a family home, where dinner has been left out on the table, and glass has been broken and only partially cleaned up. Then the frame goes back to the woods again with fragmented shots of lights in the trees. It’s nearly six minutes of this scene-setting (or, possibly, a sprinkling of clues) before we meet any characters or are given any information about what’s going on.
As if that’s not enough of a disorienting entry into this world, it’s followed with a one-sided phone call. Maddie ( Rosamund Pike ) accepts a call from Alice (Megan McDonnell), her university-age daughter who left their house abruptly after a fight, taking her father Frank’s ( Matthew Rhys ) car. Before Maddie can get much information, the calls cuts off. When they speak again, the situation has changed: There’s a been a wreck, and another person is hurt, possibly dead.
There’s a lot of confusion as the stress of the situation escalates. Frank keeps asking Maddie to put Alice on speakerphone. Maddie is trying to get information from a panicked Alice. We feel Frank’s pain in only getting part of the story, but, thankfully for everyone, Maddie does finally cave to speakerphone when they start driving to the scene — a remote forest some 40 minutes away. And we have no choice but to go on this journey with them as they navigate their own issues, ideas about how to help their daughter in this situation, what exactly caused the fight to begin with, and Maddie’s very tense attempt to coach her daughter through emergency CPR while they wait for the ambulance to arrive.
“Hallow Road” is partly about the mystery of what’s happened and what will happen — there is even a bit of a folklore element introduced that makes everything that much creepier and more confusing. You might even wonder from time to time what kind of film you’re actually watching — I think the clever trick of “Hallow Road” is that it can be different things to different viewers. In many ways, it’s also about the real nightmare of being a parent and not knowing what to do. The impulse may always be to protect, to shield, to minimize the consequences in that moment, but what are the long-term implications of that? Frank and Maddie both have different theories about the correct way to handle this horrible situation and both are right and wrong — and then there is the hysterical teen on the other end of the line.
The film plays out in near real time and its confined setting of the car recalls the Steven Knight thriller “Locke,” though a little less glossily cinematic. But that’s also OK since there’s plenty of visual interest in the faces and performances of its very compelling leads and smart script. One could imagine it being staged as a play.
It’s hard to discuss too much about what transpires in “Hallow Road” without spoiling its surprises. But ultimately, it’s an effectively minimalistic thriller that leaves much room for interpretation and debate, and a good option for anyone looking for something creepy to watch this Halloween without the gore.
“Hallow Road,” an XYZ Films release in theaters Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 80 minutes. Three stars out of four.
