A Lonely Place to Die

The trailer for this film made it look like an excellent little low-budget mountaineering thriller, set in the Scottish wilds. Melissa George and buddies being stalked by a gang of human traffickers, no doubt being picked off one by one by a rifle with telescopic sights. Hard to get wrong, right? Well, no, actually, because A LONELY PLACE TO DIE is the perfect example of a good premise going astray.

The opening sequence of this film could accurately be described as nail-biting. The subsequent events, setting up the characters and then the big twist in the woods – all are portrayed accurately. The chase through the wilderness scenes are fine. Then, at around halfway through, this film suddenly falls to pieces. The writers just haven't got a clue how to sustain momentum. The action moves to a town, and that turns out to be the worst possible thing they could do, because then it becomes a ludicrous shoot-em-up.

Melissa George, by now a seasoned veteran of horror/thrillers, makes for an engagingly tough heroine. Sean Harris has always been an ice-cold villain and doesn't disappoint. But wait, what's all this? A whole new trio of leading characters, brought into the action late on, suddenly taking over the limelight? Despite Eamonn Walker being a gifted actor, the shift in focus just doesn't work. And if I see ONE more scene in which the characters meet up with a cop who then gets shot, I'll scream.

By the end, this is tripe of the highest order, and a real disappointment. It started off so well too. Once again, check out the Spanish thriller KING OF THE HILL to see how it SHOULD be done...

Great locations and nice production with some lovely set pieces. I enjoyed this... solid film making deffo give it a while.

This movie started off well with an interesting idea, but somehow ran out of steam, or commitment, about half way through.

Melissa George and her friends go climbing in Scotland and stumble across a secret buried in the woods. They try and go for help but discover that they're not alone. The movie starts off as slow burning and intriguing, with plenty of sweeping shots of the rugged Scottish landscape, it then changes abruptly about half way through, losing all of its subtlety and becomes a standard chase movie with guns. It's almost as if the director lost their nerve and decided to go for blood and glory just in case the audience gets a little bored. Some scenes seem to be thrown in just so someone else can be killed, and the body count by the end of the movie is a bit on the high side.

The acting is fine, and I don't have any huge issues with the script, it's just it could of been a nice little thriller rather than half a good movie, and half a predictable one.

What's to me has been a pretty lackluster year for gripping thrillers A Lonely Place To Die is a refreshing and well executed one that has a solid payoff. The acting was solid from everyone though their accents kind of got in the way and was distracting and sometimes hard to understand but the highlight here was Melissa George in her best leading performance yet. The balance of themes like survival, kidnapping/ransom, stalk and kill, cat and mouse, revenge and action was stellar and close to perfection and though most of that is all too familiar by now it hasn't been as effective as this one in as long as I can remember. When it gets down and dirty it doesn't hold back and I'm not saying that it's overly graphic but just very intense and suspenseful which is most of the time way better than a splatterfest but just good old fashioned. The filming of the raw, haunting atmosphere was fantastic and has edge, it was breathtaking in intensity and beauty and the fact that it jumps to different locations and not stay at one the whole time added to the thrill in a roller-coaster ride of a chase and fight for safety in a lonely place where no one can here you scream, very harrowing stuff. Overall this is the best thriller of the year and deserved to be a wide theatrical release because to me it puts the wide released ones like Drive, Hanna and the Straw Dogs remake to shame, studios back this one up now so it can get a proper wide release that it should certainly earn. Recommended! 7.5 out of 10

I was not entirely sure what to expect prior to watching 'A Lonely Place to Die'; the plot intrigued me however after reading a multitude of negative reviews I was uncertain this film would be enjoyable.

This lack of certainty was unjustified, as I found this movie very entertaining. The pacing is spot-on and the acting is solid throughout; in addition to this, the film was not too predictable, therefore I was more than happy to see this movie through until the end. Sean Harris is also, in my opinion, a key contributor to my positive opinion of this film, as he is expectantly brilliant as always.

Overall, what stops this film from being fantastic is the lack of depth, characterisation and stand-out moments, however if you are looking for an interesting, entertaining British film with a few fresh ideas and solid acting, this is worth your time.