Babak Anvari is perhaps one of my favorite filmmakers when it comes to setting the tone and building suspense. His breathtaking masterpiece, Under the Shadow, is one of my favorite horror movies, and his latest, Hallow Road, is no less disorienting and disconcerting. This time, Anvari, working from a script by William Gillies, takes the story from Iran to the UK. The film’s opening scene sets the stage as the camera moves through the forest that will become such a focus to the home shared by Maddie (Rosamund Pike) and her husband Frank (Matthew Rhys).
One half-eaten plate, another plate left mostly untouched, and a completely empty one populate the dining room table. The camera continues moving throughout the house as we take note of pictures, work badges, and the general state of the family’s home life. Before we’re thrown into the action, the camera stops on a singular photo of Alice (Megan McDonnell), Maddie and Frank’s daughter who stormed off, we learn later, after a fight with her parents. When she calls them, distressed after hitting someone in the forest, Maddie and Frank race to get to her — and must face some hard truths.
Hallow Road Is A Stunning Work Of Art
It Mixes Interpersonal Drama With The Thrills Of A High-Stakes Situation
Most of Hallow Road takes place in the car. While this could easily grow tired, Gillies paces the reveals so when they do hit, your heart will be racing so fast to find out what will happen. Anvari’s direction, paired with Kit Fraser’s cinematography — warped angles, close-ups, and a simple focus on the phone screen and car’s GPS — do a lot to elevate the film’s anxiety-fueled story. There are ebbs and flows in terms of the story, which functions like the ranging speed limits on the road — fast at some moments and slower at others.
And Hallow Road is captivating for its entire 80-minute runtime. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and its compelling narrative — which captures the themes involving parenting, consequences for Alice, and just how far Maddie and Frank are willing to go to protect her from her own actions — lingers in our hearts throughout the film (and after). I’m still parsing through everything I witnessed and felt while watching the film. Too often, stories can gloss over the intricate complexities of parent-child relationships, but Hallow Road gets to the heart of the hard questions we rarely ask or engage with.
The decision to keep Alice offscreen is a clever one as it leaves us in the car with Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys as they play off each other in what becomes a claustrophobic space.
In terms of the actual suspense, I felt as though I was right there in the car with Maddie and Frank, each of whom had a different approach to their daughter’s predicament. Frank is desperate to fix things with Alice, often giving her bad advice in the name of protecting her. Maddie, on the other hand, is more forthright and firm in her treatment of Alice. She’s willing to call an ambulance if it means saving the life of the girl Alice hit, a decision that becomes clearer after Maddie divulges a secret about her work as an EMT.
The ongoing conversation, laced with information that heightens the intensity and stakes, peels back the layers of the parents’ relationship with Alice, and also with each other. There’s a lot of tension there and much of the drama involves Maddie and Frank’s disagreements about how they should proceed. Should Alice face the consequences of her actions, or should they cover for their daughter to save her from the reality that awaits her? It’s a tough spot to be in, but as a surprise character — whose arrival shakes things up — asks them hard questions, they’re pushed to make desperate decisions.
Rosamund Pike & Matthew Rhys Are Phenomenal In Their Roles
The decision to keep Alice offscreen is a clever one as it leaves us in the car with Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys as they play off each other in what becomes a claustrophobic space. In such a limited setting, you’d expect things to wane, but the story and directing are so good that it kept me locked in. Another big reason for that is Pike and Rhys’ pitch-perfect performances. Their exhaustion, fear, sorrow, stress, and anger reveal themselves throughout the film thanks to the actors’ nuanced, panic-stricken performances.
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Stuck in a car for the majority of the film, Pike and Rhys are facially expressive, though they make good use of body language — Rhys’ white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and Pike’s changing sitting position come to mind. But their characters’ emotions primarily play out in their eyes as we watch them react to and interact with Alice. And praise must be given to Megan McDonnell as well, whose voice performance is exceptional and kept me on the edge of my seat. She does a lot to ground us on Alice’s rollercoaster ride.
These characters are sympathetic, frustrating, and just trying to do what they think is best. Just as they’re faced with questions about Alice, so are we. Hallow Road leaves us with plenty of questions to ponder, and not only with the moral aspects of the film but also with the other, more twisted turns the story takes, which are heightened by Lorne Balfe and Peter Adams’ chilling score. The film is a compelling moral character study and a breathtaking thriller that steps on the gas and never lets up. It’s a perfect addition to Anvari’s already robust work as a filmmaker.
Hallow Road premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival.
Hallow Road
9/10
- Release Date
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March 8, 2025
