During a rampaging storm, a shaken young woman arrives at a stranger’s door in an RV park seeking shelter. They both question motives and desires as things escalate to a deadly, bizarre showdown. A film by Josiah Allen & Indianna Bell, starring Brendan Rock and Jordan Cowan.

The film opens with a heavy rain scene shot from inside a car with Betsy Brye’s Sleep Walk playing in the background. We see a silhouette of a female walking towards the passenger side, attempting to look inside. The film cuts to an old radio playing the same tune; in an RV home, Patrick (Brendan Rock) is sitting alone at the dining table. In his hand, there’s a small glass bottle with clear liquid inside. Patrick takes a long look at the bottle in his hand before sliding it in his pocket. The rain begins to fall and gets heavier by the minute, as Patrick can hear the rain and wind rattling against his RV home.

Sleep walk, instead of dreaming. I sleep walk ’cause I lost you. And now what am I to do. Can’t believe that we’re through…

Suddenly, there’s a sound of someone pounding on his door. Patrick doesn’t answer. He becomes cautious because it’s the middle of the night. He tells whoever is at the door to go away, thinking it’s one of the kids who live at the same caravan park playing a prank on him. But the pounding continues. After hearing a woman’s voice, the pounding grew increasingly annoying. Patrick eventually unlocks the door.

When you’re younger, sleep is a good thing. Your dreams are just stupid cartoons. As you get older, that changes. Your thoughts get stuck, corrupted. Your mind now functions like a scratch disc that skips illogically jumping backwards and forwards and only playing back your least-favorite scenes.

Suspicious, Patrick slightly opens the door to talk to the uninvited visitor who appears to be a young woman. The woman (Jordan Cowan) asks if she could come inside, because she had seen his car parked outside and wonders if he could give her a ride into town. Patrick lets the woman in, and asks her what made her come here. The woman claims that she ran from the beach. Patrick grows more suspicious about the woman, as he knows that no one swims during this time of year, and the beach is too far from here on foot, but Patrick keeps his suspicion to himself. Patrick tells the woman that she has knocked on the wrong door because he can’t drive her to town due to the bad conditions of his car.

No one tells you that that fear and excitement are identical emotions. That’s why people stick forks into toasters. That’s why they jump out of planes, snort cocaine, rob banks. They’re convincing themselves they’re about to die, just to feel awake.

On the other hand, the woman is likely cautious too. After all, she doesn’t know Patrick; he’s practically a stranger, potentially even a criminal. She needs to protect her real identity somehow. Patrick apologizes for not answering the door sooner, explaining that the kids in the park often knock on his door at all hours.

People move around and say it’s for a quiet neighborhood or cheaper housing. But, really, they’re always just outrunning something. Like mistakes can be dumped in a donation bin or buried in a backyard, and that’s that. But it doesn’t matter where you hide, though, does it? In the end, all we get is different-tasting tap water and new scenery for our misery.

The woman asks to use the phone to call a car to pick her up, but Patrick claims he doesn’t own a mobile. However, he gives her some coins that can be used with the payphone. Unfortunately, that payphone is located in front of the park; it’s impossible to reach during stormy weather like this. Patrick suggests the woman should wait it out. He further explains that the park gate is locked at midnight, preventing any vehicles from entering during the night.

Nights become less about fantasy, more about fear. Endlessly light. Always uneasy. Whether before and after doesn’t really matter because the now is so strangely convincing. So, you then try to avoid sleep altogether. That doesn’t stop the dreaming. Everything just becomes more confused, more intertwined like your thoughts are leaking into your life. In the end, you don’t want to be awake or asleep. Just want to be nothing…

Directed by Australian filmmakers Josiah Allen & Indianna Bell in their directorial debut, with the original screenplay written by Indianna Bell, YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME is a compelling thriller and an electrifying chamber piece that keeps the viewers hooked by the suspense as the story unfolds. We attempt to decipher clues in their words and hints hidden among the objects, questioning who the real villain is: the old man, the mysterious woman, or could it be both? The music by Australian composer Darren Lim further elevates the film’s terrifying atmosphere to another level.

Brendan Rock and Jordan Cowan deliver sublime performances, making us second-guess everything they say. Are they truthful, or do their words mean something else entirely? The conclusion, however, is somewhat of a letdown, not because it’s a bad ending, but because after all we’ve been through, we half expected something more twisted and more sinister.

YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 10 June 2023. The film was theatrically released in Australia and New Zealand on 14 March 2024, by Umbrella Entertainment. Shudder acquired the rights to the film which was released on its streaming service in the United States and the United Kingdom on 22 March.

Sleep walk. Every night, I just sleep walk. Please come back. And when you walk inside the door, I will sleep walk no more.