Turn Onto Hallow Road (SXSW) for Gripping Performances and Stomach-Churning Tension

Title: Hallow Road

First Non-Festival Release: TBD

Director: Babak Anvari

Writer: William Gillies

Runtime: 80 Minutes

Starring: Rosamund Pike, Matthew Rhys, Paul Tylak

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

This film’s review was written after its screening at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2025.

It’s in the nature of parents to protect their kids, not only from a psychological perspective but a biological one. Of course, this desire is borne from positive intentions but when repeated without abandon, it means the guilty continue to evade accountability.

Maddie (Rosamund Pike) and Frank (Matthew Rhys) get a frantic call from their daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell) after she hits a girl in the middle of a forest road. Acting quickly, the couple hop in their car and race towards their daughter, who is nearly an hour’s distance away. Speeding closer, the situation grows dire as the parents talk Alice through the best-case scenario while adjusting each time it gets worse from their combined efforts.

A thoroughly harrowing experience, Hallow Road navigates a parent’s worst nightmare with deftness.

Largely taking place in a single location, Hallow Road crafts its tension by gradually upping the stakes. Director Babak Anvari pays close attention to the claustrophobia of his story’s confined setting, maximizing the discomfort in the character’s turmoil. With each wrench thrown into their plans, the air feels heavier, the stoplights grow harsher, their only means of reaching Alice becoming more futile. The challenges they face would otherwise seem minor, but well-placed story beats squeeze out their ramifications. Inconsistent phone conversations, a buggy GPS, and the introduction of other players add to the disorientation while still fitting within the greater story once all the reveals become known. As the conflicts grow and Alice’s fate falls further away from the beams of their headlights, their world, and car, closes further into themselves.

Snowplow parents confronted with the realities of their constant coddling, Maddie and Frank try one last time to help Alice evade accountability. The central theme of the film, Maddie and Frank’s continued ‘fixing’ of Alice has not only pushed her away but sealed her own fate. Years of explaining away, interfering, and protecting, no matter how well-intentioned, has left Alice without the life experience to handle adult responsibilities. At multiple points throughout the night, Maddie and Frank have the opportunity to do the right thing, regardless of how it affects Alice’s future, but choose their daughter’s feelings over all rationality. Trapped as helpless bystanders, the audience cannot help but feel sorry for them while also screaming at them to end the madness. Hallow Road posits that the straight paths we often hope for our children are riddled with curves. And we have to hope we’ve prepared them well enough to handle the turns with grace when they are fully behind the wheel, and we’re sat helplessly on the sidelines.

Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys play off each other, and Megan McDonnell’s voice, with finesse, truly making their fear, frustration, and desperation come to life. The pair ensure to never lose sight of the stakes and sit with the challenge of their limited movements. At odds with each other more often than the situation, Pike and Rhys balance the couple’s love for each other and their daughter with their character’s respective approach to parenting. While both are culpable in Alice’s lack of development, Frank is the more indulgent of the two while Maddie relents to Frank’s emotions; Pike and Rhys play with this dynamic readily and authentically. Anvari and William Gillies’s script helps tremendously, too. Overlapping dialogue with a constant ebb and flow of panic and relief keeps the story moving at an energetic pace.

Some might find its simplicity a detriment, but it really makes Hallow Road more focused in its quest to unnerve. Stripped bare of any distractions or breaks from the action, the viewers are forced to confront the gravity of Frank, Maddie, and Alice’s choices in real time. By also leaving the viewer in the dark to Alice’s point of view, it allows their worst fears, much like Frank and Maddie’s, to manifest. A startling display of storytelling by not showing every element, Hallow Road showcases deep understanding of the fear of the unknown.

A taut horror thriller with a beating heart of parental love, Hallow Road moralizes the ways we cover for those we care for most. Its tight screenplay, engaging use of space, and excellent performances make this relatively simple story pack a powerful punch. Some might desire more out of it but for those who appreciate an intentionally crafted film, Hallow Road will take you on a journey you won’t soon forget.

Overall Score? 7/10