Alone

Alone is exactly what it sells — a taut, hot-wired survival thriller. With its gaunt storytelling, meaty characters, and high-stakes action, the film delivers on all fronts.

Alone proves a highly effective genre exercise.

There’s something deeply appealing about an already stripped-down cat-and-mouse scenario that becomes dirtier and more elemental as it goes along, tracing a devolutionary arc from the rules of the road to primeval combat.

John Hyams’s film refutes the frenetic clichés of so modern American thrillers.

This minimalist survival thriller unfolds with such elegant simplicity and single-minded momentum that its irritations are easily excused.

Alone still takes a simple premise and smacks us around with it for 95 reasonably suspenseful, thrilling minutes. And that’s enough.

Alone gives us little reason to care if our hero makes it out alive, but I have to give credit where it’s due: Jessica isn’t written as some damsel in distress. Though she does make a questionable choice or two, she’s more crafty and engaged than a standard victim.

By the end of the independent film directed by John Hyams, Alone I was out of breath, my palms sweaty, my knuckles white. As the credits rolled I realised ninety minutes had gone by in what felt like an instant. It isn't often a piece of media can conjure such intense emotions as Alone does so effortlessly. Alone follows Jessica Swanson a woman moving house to a new neighbourhood in her car however she is pursued by an ever-present stalker and it all evolves from there into a symphony of thrills. The plot is beautifully simple, almost self aware in its primitiveness. It attempts to deliver a taut, tense cinematic experience which it succeeds at in flying colours. The character of this elusive stalker frightened me to my core. He is so grounded in reality which makes him all the more disturbing. Like a wolf in sheep's clothing he dwells among us and strikes unsuspecting women through cunning manipulation and extreme persistence. Really terrifying stuff. I usually don't comment on acting since to me it doesn't make a large difference in the quality of a film but Marc Menchaca plays this character very well. Until the second act of the film he technically doesn't do anything wrong though he definitely seems off. If not done properly he could come across as quite a likeable guy but Marc gives him just the right amount of creepiness to terrify me from start to finish as his savage and abhorrent tendencies are slowly revealed. One thing that struck me when watching the film was the masterful cinematography. Federico Verardi is able to show so much with so little. Every clear, concise frame is interesting on some level keeping the viewer glued to the screen. At first I felt the widescreen aspect ratio didn't suit the claustrophobic mood but it soon grew on me giving the vast, stunning yet unforgiving American wilderness a sense of grandeur as if the forest itself is spectating this brutal cat and mouse scenario. All in all, I really enjoyed Alone. It is pure, honest, visceral, reviving cinema. It doesn't reinvent the wheel but the wheel it uses is polished to a glistening shine. I usually don't enjoy thrillers (I am a bit of touchy with horror films) but this had me enthralled. Go and watch as long as you don't pass out from stress halfway through the film I think you'd enjoy it. Hope this review helped!

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Massively overrated. It's poorly written and poorly executed. The serial killer is a cartoon that basically reviews the vast majority of cliches that involve these characters and his dialogues hurt because they're so stupid. It certainly has its positive points, more than anything that its main character is not a lady in distress, so she's not a simplistic victim, however the story offers little to make you feel really interested or concerned about her well-being. So it goes without saying that it never becomes a more intense or more engaging experience. It's hard for me to understand how it has received so many positive critics.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This was the least plausible movie I have ever seen. The choices made by the people in the movie were so unrealistic. For example, if you're running away from someone in a thick forest, just lay down. You will never get caught.