‘A Lonely Place to Die’ Is a Feature-Length Anxiety Attack Currently Streaming on Shudder [The Overlooked Motel]
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Today’s pick is a film that I blind-watched on Shudder last week. I didn’t take in the trailer or read anything beyond a single-sentence plot prior to jumping in. That lack of context made A Lonely Place to Die all the more enjoyable for me. So, I will be especially vague with my analysis to ensure anyone who hasn’t seen the film will have a similarly pleasant experience.
A Lonely Place to Die is unpredictable, intense, and rife with tension from the jump. It’s a horror thriller melded with action and adventure conventions in the vein of The Descent. If that doesn’t pique your curiosity, I don’t know what will.
The setup goes like this:
Alison (Melissa George), Ed (Ed Speleers), Rob (Alec Newman), Jenny (Kate Magowan), and Alex (Garry Sweeney) set off on a hiking excursion in the remote Scottish Highlands. What starts as a routine day of hiking takes a sinister turn when the pals discover a young girl buried in a subterranean bunker. Naturally, they liberate her. But the child doesn’t speak any English and isn’t able to provide any helpful information to her rescuers. Making matters even more dire, whoever is responsible for the child’s capture eventually catches up to the comrades and attempts to recapture the young girl with deadly force.
I love the way director Julian Gilbey seamlessly melds action and adventure tropes with horror conventions here. It’s a mixture we don’t see terribly frequently but when executed effectively that combination makes for an intense and thrilling viewing experience. Believe me when I say that the execution really is on point here.
I won’t speak at any length about who lives or dies. And I won’t say anything about when or how. What I will share is that characters who may or may not meet an untimely demise often do so in a shocking and unpredictable fashion. There is one tragic sequence in particular that absolutely floored me. Gilbey gives few, if any, contextual clues as to what’s about to transpire. So, when the scene in question played out, I was so surprised that I audibly gasped. It felt surreal and like a deviation from the rulebook.
A Lonely Place to Die delights in upending expectations.
That’s precisely what I like to see in a film like this. One can write a serviceable screenplay and entertain viewers well enough without breaking too much from convention. But taking things a few steps further by adding in some unexpected developments and deviating from expectations can elevate a film to the level of greatness. And I absolutely count A Lonely Place to Die as a film that achieves that conceit.
Screenwriters Julian Gilbey and Will Gilbey approach the scenarios the core cast find themselves in smartly and seem to deeply consider the limits of plausibility. Yes, the setup creates a perfect storm of events that would likely never play out in real life as it does onscreen. However, each development is well-justified within the narrative. Each harrowing ordeal the cast is hurled into has at least a modicum of logic applied. And a little of that goes a long way. I will suspend my disbelief if you give me a reason to do so. Thankfully, the flick strikes a smart balance that gives us cause to set our disbelief aside and go with it.
Speaking of smart writing, the way Anna is introduced with no explanation as to how she got to be in a hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere creates an urgent sense of unease and introduces a compelling central mystery. That is quickly amplified when we learn that the young girl only speaks Croatian. Matters get even more intense from there when whoever is responsible for Anna’s capture realizes she’s missing. Her captors speak English but they most certainly are not open to talking or negotiating. What follows is an intense cat-and-mouse dynamic that doesn’t relent until the credits are rolling.
The tension presents early and never dissipates for long.
The tension-building begins long before the proverbial excrement hits the fan. Wide shots of members of the core cast scaling the face of a mountain near the beginning are anxiety-inducing in the best possible way. There’s a sense of untethered terror as we look through the perspective of the camera at an ungodly elevation. That’s a tactic I love. It instills terror and makes my palms sweat. It’s all I can do to keep my eyes on the screen. And I’m not even deathly afraid of heights. But it’s like an involuntary reaction. It just feels unsafe and unnatural to be voyeuristically watching these characters from what I’m certain must be about 4 million miles above sea level. The foreshadowing doesn’t take long to pay dividends. Mere moments into the movie, a jaw-dropping mishap plays out that sets the tone for what’s to come.
After the harrowing ordeal at the onset, we’re briefly lured into a false sense of security. Spirits are high. The route they’ve chosen to climb is a good match for their collective skill level. They’ve packed a picnic lunch and all presume the day will be uneventful. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, plenty. Within moments of setting out to scale the rock formation, the outdoorsy friends happen upon the young girl buried underground. And everything unfolds at a breakneck pace from there.
My only negative critique is that I wish the reveal of the central antagonist was postponed a bit. The anticipation of who is after the core characters and why creates a state of panic-laced intrigue. Were that sustained for an additional 20 minutes, A Lonely Place to Die would be a near-perfect horror thriller. As it stands, the placement of the reveal detracts slightly from the experience. But that’s a minor qualm and one I’m happy to look past in the grand scheme.
The final verdict on A Lonely Place to Die:
This film is an intense affair with ample twists and a rousing finale. I implore you to seek out this under-seen thriller at your earliest convenience. Should you like to do so, the flick is streaming on Shudder as of the publication of this post.
That’s all for this installment of The Overlooked Motel. If you want to chat more about under-seen and underrated films, feel free to hit me up with your thoughts on Twitter, Threads, or Instagram.
Categorized:Editorials The Overlook Motel
