When two parents learn that their daughter has accidentally hit a pedestrian with the car, they race to the scene. They soon realize they might not be the only ones driving down there. A film by Babak Anvari, starring Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys.
HALLOW ROAD
Babak Anvari
(2025)
It’s about 2:10 a.m. The kitchen island is a mess, with leftover food and drinks scattered across it. Three plates sit abandoned on the surface, two with half-finished food, while the third remains completely clean, as if it was never touched. Broken glass glitters across the floor below. Everything about the scene suggests the evening came to a sudden, unexpected end.
Upstairs, Paramedic Maddie (Rosamund Pike) jolts awake to a persistent beeping from the smoke alarm. She rolls over, realizes her husband Frank (Matthew Rhys) isn’t in bed, and finds him asleep at a desk in their daughter’s room. Assuming the battery is low, she pulls the detector from the ceiling and replaces it. But the beeping won’t stop. Frustrated, she yanks the batteries out entirely, finally silencing the noise.
Suddenly, Maddie’s phone buzzes on the bedside table. It’s Alice (Megan McDonnell). Maddie answers, gently telling her daughter it’s really late and that she shouldn’t have taken off like that, then reminds her that Frank needs his car back for work tomorrow. But Alice hangs up before Maddie can say more, just as Frank walks into the room. He immediately demands to know where Alice and his car are. Frustrated that she has no answers because Alice hung up so quickly, Maddie just tells him he can take her car instead.
Maddie immediately calls Alice back. When Alice answers, Maddie quickly tries to reassure her, saying Frank just wants to know if she’s back at the flat. But Alice stays silent. Assuming her daughter is just upset and not wanting to talk, Maddie suggests she could at least send a text to let them know she’s safe.
Maddie is stunned when Alice confesses to hitting someone with the car. She tells Alice to dial 999 immediately and to explain exactly what happened and where she is. Maddie listens to Alice and relays the information to Frank, who stands nearby, visibly worried. Alice already called the operator and an ambulance is on the way.
Something doesn’t feel right to Maddie. She asks Alice why she isn’t still on the phone with the operator. Alice admits she hung up. Frustrated, Maddie tells her to call them back, stressing that the operator can guide her through everything and can tell her exactly where the ambulance is.
Frank snatches the phone from Maddie and tells Alice that he and her mother are on their way, asking her to stay on the phone. Maddie protests, insisting that Alice needs to be on the phone with the emergency services, but Frank is firm. He argues that Maddie should be the one talking to their daughter since she’s a qualified paramedic.
While Frank drives the fifty minutes to Hallow Road near Ashford Forest, Maddie works to convince Alice to get out of the car and check on the victim. She explains that the person might die if left on the road. She fears if that happens, Alice will face much more serious charges.
Frightened, Alice gets out and finds the victim is a girl who appears to be her own age. Frank adds his voice to Maddie’s, telling Alice to listen to her mother because she knows how to save lives. Alice follows Maddie’s instructions and checks on the girl, discovering she isn’t breathing. Every second is critical, and Maddie quickly tells Alice to perform the CPR she taught her.
Alice becomes devastated when she can’t revive the girl, but keeps performing CPR as Maddie insists she must continue until paramedics arrive to take over. Meanwhile, Frank and Maddie argue heatedly in the car. Frank thinks Alice should stop because there’s nothing more she can do, while Maddie insists that stopping the CPR means the girl can’t be saved. Alice is horrified when she hears a sickening crunch during compressions and feels the girl’s chest cave in. Despite this, Maddie remains calm and tells Alice that it can happen, and she must continue. Frank is appalled and orders Alice to leave the girl and wait in the car for the ambulance.
The film reveals that Alice is pregnant with her boyfriend Jakub. When she told her parents at dinner, Frank became enraged, causing her to flee the house in his car. She couldn’t return to her flat because Jakub would be there, and he doesn’t know about the pregnancy. Instead, she stopped at Ashford Forest to get high. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. Not only did their daughter hit someone with the car, but she was driving under the influence. When the ambulance that should have arrived by now still hasn’t shown up, Maddie realizes something is wrong. She confronts Alice, who finally admits she never called 999. Alice thought Maddie could save the girl’s life.
Thinking about Alice’s future, Frank decides he will take the blame for her crime. He is determined to protect Alice no matter what, and despite Maddie’s attempts to convince him that the police will find out, he won’t change his mind. Since it’s his car, Frank argues he can claim he was the one driving. All they have to do is get to Alice first. Then, he will stay with the car and wait for the police while Maddie drives Alice home.
Things take a darker turn when Alice tells them she can see their car approaching. Frank and Maddie are terrified because they’re still 25 minutes away, which means someone else is on Hallow Road and is about to find Alice before they do.
Directed by a British-Iranian filmmaker from a screenplay by William Gillies, HALLOW ROAD is a psychological thriller about two parents who discover their daughter has been in a car accident and race to reach her before anyone else does.
The narrative is incredibly convincing and unsettling as it explores every parent’s worst nightmare: their beloved child has hit someone with a car. How far will they go to protect her? With no flashbacks and scenes filmed mostly within the car, the tension builds relentlessly as the stakes grow higher.
Rosamund Pike delivers a powerful performance as a logical paramedic torn between her professional duty and maternal instincts, while Matthew Rhys portrays an increasingly erratic father willing to do anything for his daughter, including taking the blame for a crime he didn’t commit.
This film might not appeal to everyone, especially those who prefer clear answers over ambiguity, but that’s what I found so compelling about it.
I love how the film never uses visual flashbacks or shows us Alice’s perspective, instead giving us only fragments of information about what led to her drive down Hallow Road.
The strange couple is also voiced by Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys, which adds an even more bizarre layer of ambiguity. I had no idea they were the same actors until the end credits, which made the whole experience even more unsettling.
HALLOW ROAD premiered at SXSW on 7 March 2025. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 16 May.
