Hallow Road (15) |Close-Up Film Review
Dir: Babak Anvari, Czech Republic/ Ireland/ UK 2025, 80 mins.
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Pierre Lottin, Matthew Rhys, Megan McDonnell
Review by Carlie Newman
The film begins in the middle of the night with a phone call from 18 year-old Alice (Meghan McDonnell) to her parents, Mads (Rosamund Pike) and her husband, Frank (Matthew Rhys). Alice’s panicking after she has hit a pedestrian on a remote forest road. Alice had earlier driven off in her father‘s car after an argument with her parents.
Alice wants her parents to help her and as they drive – in her mother‘s car – towards her they give Alice instructions on how to deal with the situation. She is frightened, and her parents try to protect her in the same way they have done in the past. Frank wants to take responsibility for hitting the walker in order to save Alice. But before they arrive, they hear another couple talking to their daughter about her accident.
Everything takes place over their mobile phones. We see Alice’s smiling face, but only hear her almost hysterical pleas for help on the phone. The couple drive as fast as they can.
The sound is amazing backed up by fear-tingling music. Pike and Rhys give powerful performances as a couple who have obviously overindulged their daughter and now still want to protect her and feel unable to do so as they are still driving towards her as incidents take place. All is not as it seems though and the ending is another shock!
