Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys star as distraught parents faced with an unthinkable tragedy that leads to an intense moral conundrum in director Babak Anvari’s Hallow Road. The filmmaker’s minimalist approach serves a dual purpose here, palpably capturing the psychological intensity of its nightmarish scenario and weighty questions while honoring and modernizing the ancient oral traditions tied to its specific brand of horror.
Hallow Road opens with a camera tracking through a quiet, seemingly empty house, showing alarming signs of a blow-out brawl. A dinner left abandoned on the dining room table, barely untouched. Glass shattered yet swept into a dust pan before being abandoned in a corner. There’s also a jack-o-lantern quickly glimpsed on the counter, the first sign that this gripping fable takes place over All Hallow’s Eve, the first subtle hint toward what lies in wait on Hallow Road, the deep-wooded forest road where college-age daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell) makes a fatal mistake that will summon her sleeping parents (Pike and Rhys) from their home in the middle of the night as they rush to her aid.
Anvari, working from a script by William Gillies, unfurls the intense morality play almost entirely from within the parents’ car, rarely looking away from the emotional duress of its lead characters as the details of Alice’s current predicament come piecemeal. Every new disturbing revelation further erodes this family unit, even as mom and dad race against time in a frantic bid to save it. Like Anvari’s Under the Shadow and Wounds, Hallow Road steeps the supernatural in realism; this is a filmmaker far more interested in exploring the psychological ramifications rather than showy horror visuals. It’s a move that’s likely to frustrate many, especially as it ventures deeper and deeper into a mythic place and the parents realize their daughter isn’t alone on the deserted stretch of road.
Photo credit: Julie Vrabelova
Yet Pike and Rhys are more than capable of keeping viewers in their grip as they fight over the best way to swoop in and save their daughter from a ruinous fate, which in itself becomes the central crux of this contemporary cautionary tale with enchanted origins. How far each is willing to go, or not, to help Alice avoid accountability not only escalates the anxiety and tension but reveals the catastrophic harm in swooping in to magically erase your children’s grave mistakes for them. Lofty questions of accountability in Anvari’s hands make for one doozy of a cautionary tale.
When all the cards are finally laid out on the table, Hallow Road dangles a magical resolution just out of sight and dark fantasy imagery mostly along with it. The steadfast commitment to minimalism leaves its lore slightly underserved, though that does little to diminish its impact. The precedence here is on the ramifications of every choice made and the fractured family making them, bolstered by two incredible lead performances by Pike and Rhys, both pulling double duty in a sly way.
Once upon a time, folk stories were intended for adults, not children, as terrifying tales harboring moral messaging. Hallow Road refuses to give into childlike fantasy, a move that will likely prove divisive though no less sobering. It makes for a grim tale that sticks with you.
Hallow Road made its world premiere at SXSW. Release info TBD.
The post ‘Hallow Road’ SXSW Review – A Gripping, Minimalist Halloween-Set Fable appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
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