Director: Jen McGowan
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Plot:
Hearing of a new job opening, a teen hoping to arrive on time finds herself stranded in the wilderness due to a wrong turn and is then hunted down by a group of thugs looking to keep their illegal drug-running operation a secret forcing her to team with a stranger to get out of the situation alive.
This was an exceptionally enjoyable and engaging thriller. Most of what works nicely here involves the main setup to what's going on as the idea of her getting stranded is played off incredibly well. The idea of getting lost, especially on the winding road through the woods that she drives in on, in an unfamiliar location as the woods depicted here is quite important in setting the pace for the film. It's quite likely to see how it would occur as it happens here with the phone giving faulty directions it can't possibly know against real-life situations, and topping that off with the manner in which she confronts the duo while they're pushing themselves on her as she tries to get out herself which sets this one going. That she's able to defend herself and hold her own is quite impressive, and the rest of the early sequences give this a strong start.
As well, the idea of being in the situation presents itself with some rather enjoyable elements. That she's injured with the knife-stab at the very beginning gives this a very identifiable manner to side with her as it lowers her down to their level as well as provides some suspense through the bleeding wound either potentially killing her or drawing them to her. Tending to the wound and trying to get her bearings provide this with a great base to the scenes in the woods of her trying to get away while tending to her wounds. The introduction of the stranger there to potentially help her even though he keeps her at the house without letting her leave is quite an impressive contribution to the suspense of the film and greatly generates some nice tension throughout this part of the film. As more gets revealed about what's going on and how ruthless they are to get at her, there's some tense moments in here.
What also helps here is the fact that the cast present can act which greatly helps this one. Hermione Corfield as the lead Sawyer makes for a truly gripping and effective lead here. She's capable of fending for herself with her self-defense skills, has a rather strong head on her shoulders to think in this situation where she's able to rationalize and process what's going on and being stuck behind enemy lines the way she is makes for quite a sympathetic character. The two thugs after her, Micah Hauptman as Hollister and Daniel R. Hill as Buck, offer up the prototypical rugged backwoods inbreds that means they talk tough but can't back it up as the only thing going for them is the survivalist instinct from being out in the woods. With character actors Sean O'Bryan, John Marshall Jones and Jeremy Glazer also appearing, this is enough to hold it up over it's few flaws.
There are some problems here, which mainly stem from the odd idea of keeping her chained up for long periods of the film but yet not doing anything really impactful during the middle of the film. As this section contains the utterly cliched side-investigation of the fake officer supposedly helping her yet working for the group out hunting her which not only feels more like it's expected but also disrupts the momentum the film had been quite effectively building by that point. There's no real suspense to be had from this one standing around waiting for her to get discovered by spending the time with her in the shack learning what she does about the process of drug-making that he does to pass the time, and this causes the pacing to lag during this section of the film. While it does pick up somewhat in the finale, these here are what hold it down despite the positive elements.
With a lot of overall enjoyable elements to be had within this back-and-forth genre effort and only a few minor hold-ups, for the most part this becomes a wholly worthwhile thriller with just a few minor stumbling blocks. Give it a shot if you're into these kinds of genre pieces or looking for a tense and fun thriller, while those looking for a more straightforward genre piece should heed mild caution.
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