Hallow Road

There comes a moment in every parent's life when we simply can't help our child when they're in distress. A time when we have no solutions and can offer no tangible support. This is the horror of Hallow Road, a harrowing nightmare that spirals into despair. It represents every parent's worst fears, self-doubt, and a gut-wrenching feeling of helplessness.

Directed by Babak Anvari, Hallow Road is a tense, claustrophobic thriller that takes place mostly in the front seat of a car. A married couple, Maddie and Frank (Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys) receive a distressing late-night call from their college-aged daughter Alice, who has hit a pedestrian with her car. She's panicking, so the couple gets in their car and races off to meet up with her at the scene of the accident.

From the outset, the hairs were raised on the back of my neck: something felt off. Why aren't they calling 999? Why is their GPS navigation giving them wrong directions? Why is it taking so long to get to their daughter? Is the road hallowed, in a holy sense? Maybe.

The camera never leaves the confines of the car as the couple is on the phone with Alice the entire time. We only hear Alice's voice. Maddie is a paramedic who attempts to take command of the situation by offering professional support, telling Alice exactly what to do. This might be effective in any other crisis, but here, she has conflicting emotions towards her youthful daughter's seemingly poor choices.

Frank, on the other hand, tries to keep his emotions in check while stepping on the accelerator and offering advice contrary to Maddie's no-nonsense approach. An uncomfortable and adversarial family dynamic begins to emerge as the story progresses, touching on a history of conflict and unresolved emotions. The film explores tough themes about the desire to protect one's child while also grappling with disappointment when they make bad decisions. Themes about how a husband and wife aren't always on the same page when raising a child and how that plays out into adulthood. The compelling dialogue in Hallow Road is filled with brutal truths and uncomfortable revelations about all three characters.

And while all this family tension is playing out, the clock is ticking. How much longer before they get to their panic-stricken daughter? The cinematography is beautiful, making it feel like we are genuinely in this car, racing down a desolate country road. Anvari's direction keeps the tension ramping up throughout the entire runtime, a beautifully concise 80 minutes.

Hallow Road has a bit of a Twilight Zone vibe. Certain moments felt slightly out of place, hinting at a deeper mystery. Midway through, the film introduces a new dynamic that shifts the narrative from an internal family conflict to something more external. I found myself asking question after question, trying to figure out what was going on at the scene of the accident. We can only hear the scene unfold, relying on Alice's possibly unreliable account of events. The fact that we never leave the front seat of the car, pulls us into the same stressful urgency that Maddie and Frank feel. A feeling of complete helplessness.

The movie is filled with as many twists and turns as the dark road we are racing down. It's the kind of film that begs you to sit up and pay attention. In fact, before the premiere at SxSW, the director asked us to please stick around for the credits, that there was a "bit of an Easter egg". That's putting it mildly. The audience literally gasped at this one tiny moment that recontextualized everything we had seen. The way the twist is presented is unlike anything I've seen before-subtle, yet monumental. After the screening, Babak Anvari asked if anyone saw it coming, and very few did. I certainly didn't, and it had me rethinking everything I saw.

This all adds up to a challenging, but wildly engaging and entertaining experience. In the end, there are no easy answers. Hallow Road is filled with ambiguity, which may be a deal-breaker for some viewers. After the movie, I turned to my friend and we both felt we needed time to digest what we witnessed. Over dinner a couple of days later, we discussed the movie and our theories about what happened, especially regarding the ending. Interestingly, we each had wildly different takes. She offered an explanation I hadn't even considered and vice-versa. Both are completely valid interpretations. You may come up with something even more creative, and that's the beauty of a proper ambiguous ending.

Hallow Road was one of the best films to premiere at SxSW, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again when it gets released. The performances by Pike and Rhys are outstanding, carrying long stretches of complicated, overlapping dialogue that feels natural and heartfelt. If you're a fan of psychological thrillers and twists you will love it. And if you're a parent, you will feel this at a deeper level. Sometimes, when our kids are in crisis, we simply can't help. Much like this movie, we don't always have answers.