Mark Reviews Movies: ALONE (2020)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 17, 2020

A woman faces off against a stalker, who later becomes a captor and a pursuer, in Alone. It's a tight, frill-free, and mostly believable thriller, orchestrated by director John Hyams with an emphasis on suspense over action.

Following the death of her husband, Jessica (Jules Willcox) has decided to move. She hits the road, towing a small trailer of select possessions, and after a while, Jessica has a close call when a fellow motorist, driving slowly on a highway, suddenly speeds up as she tries to merge.

The man (played by Marc Menchaca, with an eerie aura of hollow politeness) behind the wheel catches up to Jessica several times—knocking on her car window to apologize, trying to stop her when his SUV allegedly breaks down, showing up at a rest stop and wanting to chat again. The tension of these scenes is in how creepily ordinary they are—a man injecting himself into this woman's business for no reason—and how this guy's insistence quickly suggests some ill intent.

Mattias Olsson's screenplay deliberately and logically escalates the suspense of this situation, as the stalker's presence becomes more frequent and his tactics become more aggressive. We get some information about Jessica—mainly in regards to some problems with her mother and the grief/guilt of her husband's death—and the man—that he is, on the surface at least, just an ordinary guy with a place and people to call home. Mostly, though, the success of Olson's script is in its plotting.

As simple as the plot may be (Jessica is constantly forced to evade and escape the man's reach), each new complication or confrontation builds from the previous one. Every obstacle, especially when Jessica finds herself the man's prisoner, seems as if it could be the end, but Jessica displays no small amount of intelligence to figure out a solution.

Hyams knows that the pacing and timing of each suspense sequence is as vital as its staging and the camera's framing. He allows these scenes (the early confrontations, a tense moment barely concealed in a closet, the faltering trust of a helpful stranger, and hiding in the man's trunk) and, indeed, the whole film to simmer. The plot of Alone is simplicity itself, and the filmmakers show real skill and craft in making the execution of this material appear so simple and easy.

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