SXSW: ‘Hallow Road’ Brings Large Dread In A Mid-Sized Sedan

How far would you go to protect your child? It’s a theoretical many parents turn over in their heads, but Hallow Road rubs audiences’ nose in the worst case scenario. Coursing with panic, Hallow Road locks the viewer into a mid-sized sedan in a wicked two-hander that’s impressively sustained. Featuring career highlight work from Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys, there’s not likely to be a film at the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival that reaches this level of dread.

In the aftermath of an argument, two parents (Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys) receive a call from their teenage daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell), expecting to make amends. Instead, they hear their child sobbing, revealing that Alice has hit a pedestrian deep in the forest. Jumping in the car, the parents attempt to talk their daughter through getting the proper authorities to arrive and resuscitating the victim. As they plunge further and further towards the titular Hallow Road, their nightmares become reality as the full weight of what their daughter has done and their own complicity begins to dawn.

Director Babak Anvari has a difficult situation of his own to juggle. A mostly single-location thriller is already a challenge to keep entertaining. One that features this bleak of a dilemma might as well be Anvari playing on hard mode. Nevertheless, the filmmaker revels in a fiendish glee, making the parents’ car a pressure cooker. Their car becomes an extension of their increasing dilemma.

Cinematographer Kit Fraser has a heck of a time working in this space. Fraser’s perceptive eye plays devilish little tricks, like switching to a wide-angle lens as the leads hit a peak of fear. In a darkly comic sequence, the turn signal is reflected in the driver and passenger windows, pointing backward, practically begging the protagonists to turn around.

The strength of its actors keeps Hallow Road from veering off course.

Hallow Road‘s two-person show wouldn’t work without two terrific actors. Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys are up to the challenge. The Wheel of Time‘s Rosamund Pike, as the mother, portrays a cold practicality in dealing with her daughter. Her background in the medical field gives an easy explanation for this, yet as Hallow Road continues, a mixture of contempt and a deeper insecurity comes to the forefront.

Matthew Rhys reflects the more immediately relatable parent, one who will do anything for his daughter, even at great personal sacrifice. Connecting the two of them is a sense of being way out of their depth. Set nearly in real time, Hallow Road offers the opportunity to watch two masterful actors fall apart.

Although her part is relegated to a voice role, Megan McDonnell is chilling as Alice. Each call from Alice takes on a more distraught energy. The shock in her voice is pure nightmare fuel. Screenwriter William Gillies does an excellent job of sustaining the stress level by gradually raising the stakes. Part of the pitch black fun of Hallow Road is seeing how the family navigates a situation that keeps getting worse. Gillies and Anvari kick the proceedings up another notch when two unseen strangers stumble upon what the daughter’s done, adding a whole new complication.

New developments later on hinder more than aid in effective storytelling.

This complication is also where Hallow Road falters a bit, although not for the reasons one might be expecting. As a narrative device, this is what takes Hallow Road‘s very bad night to the next level. The implications of said narrative device get a little murkier as the film indicates there may be something much deeper going on than what was initially assumed. Again, this is an exciting development.

The issue is that Hallow Road doesn’t properly follow up on this aspect of the story, ending quite abruptly and leaving the audience with lingering questions. Strangely enough, one of these questions could be partially answered by looking at the voice cast in the end credits. Even then, there’s only an inkling as to what truly transpired.

That point could simply be much ado about nothing, however, as Hallow Road is immensely successful at what it sets out to do. Babak Anvari’s single-vehicle, two-actor journey through darkness conjures up a suffocating discomfort that will require deep breaths afterward, at the least. Whether or not this dour ride into the forest goes to a satisfying destination, the ride is more than worth it.

Hallow Road premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival. The film currently has no distribution.