‘Hallow Road’ is an incredibly sharp psychological thriller which makes maximum use of its largely single location shooting, from the inside of a car, as the parents of a teenage girl set out to find her in the early hours of the morning upon discovering that she was involved in an accident which resulted in the death of a young girl on the road in remote woodland.

This escalates into a morality tale involving the ways in which the parents, played by Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike, think of ways in which they can come to the aid of their daughter who, based on what she has told them, is likely to have her university education ruined and can expect to spend many years in prison as she was intoxicated when the collision happened.

It is left to us to piece together the many missing parts of the jigsaw as we are drip fed a number of pieces of information about the reason why their daughter fled the family home and whether her parents (who are not exactly seeing eye to eye on every facet of what unfolds) are willing to take the rap for their daughter’s misdemeanour.

‘Hallow Road’ is both an expertly crafted slice of realistic tension, as we vicariously experience the unseen daughter through her mobile phone call with her parents, as well as a brilliant foray into the realm of folklore, horror and the supernatural in the third act when it suggests that at least one of the characters may be communicating from another celestial plane.

Decisions and actions have consequences, and the parents’ wish to do everything they can for their child becomes laden with unforeseen ramifications as any of the accounts of events no longer check out and they only make their daughter’s predicament even more volatile. This is a film which shows how a dilemma can escalate and morph into something malevolent, not just legally or morally but in terms of wider spiritual or religious positions.

The sound design in this film is remarkable, lending a nocturnal journey through the streets of rural England a level of menace and pagan superstition which are reminiscent of ‘The Wicker Man’ or the more recent oeuvre of Ari Aster. ‘Hallow Road’ is all the more effective for being filmed in real time, and for the way guilt and sin are drivers in this toe-curlingly effective drama.