YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME Review: When A Stranger Knocks

Relying upon the kindness of strangers (who are very strange indeed) on a dark and stormy night (when it feels like the wind might blow the world down) is a good recipe for a horror film. Add in a somewhat isolated location, seemingly a lot of memory loss, a lack of footwear, and a seeming reluctance to get assistance, and this becomes a deceptively complex story that is less cat-and-mouse and more who is the cat and who will gain the upper hand.

You'll Never Find Me takes some bold leaps in its reimagining of isolation horror, whether it's in who the villain is, what true isolation means, and how to lay out the dread and the tension, to make the audience pay attention to details. Australian directing duo Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen take Bell's slow-burn script and mostly make it work - but it's hard to sustain such fraught tension and slow pacing for the near 100-minute running time,

Patrick (Brendan Rock) lives at the far end of a trailer park - he can easily see the other trailers from his door, but it's clear that he;s not particularly liked, being a single man of a certain age means people think you're creepy. So it's more than a little odd that, out of all the trailers, a young Woman would (Jordan Cowan) would pick his to knock at when she's in need of help. There's a terrific storm ongoing, and she is barefoot, and without any phone or ID.

But Patrick has no phone, apparently, and it seems she isn't keen on going to check with anyone else - though even in the storm, it would be easy enough to find someone else. So why does she stay? Is she in danger from Patrick, who does seem nervous despite his stiff politeness. Or is Patrick in danger? She claims she fell asleep at the beach and lost her way, somehow getting passed the locked park gate after midnight. Or was she at a bar? Her story keeps changing.

Patrick seems to have some kind of shrine with various obejcts, with a think layer of dust, and any inquiries from the Woman about that leads to a short but sad story. But this opens up conversation: rather than filling this slow nightmare with unimportant pleasantries, the two get into something of a more philosophical discussion - on the nature of human connection, loneliness, thought this leads them back to the more pertinant questions in the moment: who is this woman, and is she in danger?

And this is a puzzle with scattered pieces, hiding in plain sight. Bell and Allen immediately plunge the audience into this world with a intensely slow pace, sound design to play tricks on the ears and mind, and a camera that understands what a small space this is, giving plenty of close ups that allow the characters almost nowhere to hide. That means secrets are bound to be found - it's just a matter of which ones, and when. It keeps the audience teetering on this fraught edge, waiting with nail-biting anticipation, when the final clue will come into place.

The trouble is, once it does, it moves into a more familiar and less interesting final act, one which gives more predictable answers, and an explanation that lets us know, at least one of these characters is, in the end, quite dull. There is only so long such tension can be sustained, after all, and if the resolution is not worthy of the tension, it can lead to a disappointing conclusion.

The actors are both excellent, and fill the space with their anxiety and shame, loneliness and anger. They carry the film through its maze, and completely envelope us in their struggle, making us both want to know more, and be terrified of the truth. There is a terrific use of this space - where there can be privacy, but nowhere to hide - and of the sounds of the story, and whatever monsters are trying to get in (if they haven't already).

While it's third act is something of a let down, You'll Never Find Me is very effectively using that slow crawl of horror, one in which the danger is shuffled between two characters like both are sititng in pots of slowly boiling water.

You'll Never Find Me will stream on Shudder beginning Friday, March 22nd.