‘Alone’ Review: Dir. John Hyams [Fantasia 2020]

After the unexpected death of her husband, Jessica (Jules Willcox) is relocating cross-country. Initially meant to be accompanied by her parents, Jessica decides to go it alone and sets out with all her stuff, but the journey gets off to a hairy start after an altercation with another driver almost ends in disaster. Things then get much worse when the driver of the other vehicle (Marc Menchaca) keeps reappearing at every stop she makes. It isn’t long before she finds herself locked up in the middle of the wilderness; after a desperate bid for freedom Jessica finds herself hiding from a mad-man with only one goal: her death.

Alone starts slow, director John Hyams sets up our lead of Jessica and uses the time to steadily build up tension. Each encounter between Jessica and Menchaca’s character, credited simply as ‘the man’, gets progressively more intense. Any woman watching will immediately identify with Jessica’s feelings in these situations; they are the types of uncomfortable encounters that many of us will have had at some point. The audience’s own experience is reflected by Jessica’s mature and safety-conscious approach to these exchanges. For example, she tries to remain within her car when talking to him, and keeps information about herself vague. Unfortunately for her though, she’s the lead in a kidnap-survival thriller, and it’s not too long before she’s in the clutches of the man.

She’s not captive for long however, and her daring escape paves the way for a nail-biting pursuit through the woods. As with Jessica’s roadside encounters, there’s a sense of plausibility to the piece here, especially in her prison break. Audiences are used to seeing characters in abduction plots, trapped and with no way out. Their captor is always omnipresent, cruel, cunning, and seemingly unstoppable. In Alone, the man is just a regular guy, and as such, he can be fought back against. He makes mistakes based on his own ego, assuming Jessica will be too timid and afraid to challenge her situation. His shock is apparent during her initial escape, but he adapts quickly to the new normal and it’s here that his true, more dastardly nature, is revealed. With the man not being the unstoppable force we’re familiar with, and Jessica being portrayed as clever and practical from the get-go, it becomes clear early on that the battle of wits we’re about to see unfold will be very evenly matched. Hyams then plays on the audience’s investment and throws them through the wringer along with Jess.

Considering the plot is rather basic – a woman must escape her captor – Alone relies on its strong cast to carry the film. In Willcox and Menchaca, Hyams has found fantastic on-screen partners, the scenes between them being electric and always thickly veiled with threat. As Jessica, Willcox is brilliant, unleashing her inner warrior to perfection. Her pragmatic approach to the character shines through, and Jessica is most definitely a woman that the audience can root for. It’s a physically demanding role, but Willcox never allows that physicality overwhelm other aspects of her character. Menchaca is suitably sinister as Jessica’s tormentor. He plays the balance of the character wonderfully, switching from bumbling and endearing non-threatening nerd, to cold and calculating predator, in the blink of an eye. This is a character that relies on his brain rather than brawn to get the job done, and Menchaca always keeps just enough of the character behind his eyes for the audience to recognise his constant plotting.

With such a small cast of characters, and the focus on survival at all costs, Alone does dip in pace occasionally. There’s always a repetitive component to these kind of films and Alone does fall into that pattern once or twice. That aside, Alone makes for a compelling and clever tale of predator vs prey.

Alone was reviewed at Fantasia 2020.