Film Review: You’ll Never Find Me
How do you make a lovely little horror film? You put two leads with a great script in a single (storm-battered) setting for one hour and forty minutes.
That’s what first-time directors Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen did with their debut feature, You’ll Never Find Me.
From the outset, the storm that whips around Patrick’s (Brendan Rock) isolated mobile home threatens to rip it in half. Ceilings groan, winds squeal, and the torrential rain batters his basic box from start to (almost) finish.
Before time’s up, there’s lots to chew on. You’ll Never Find Me is a neat chamber piece, built on the turbulence enveloping Patrick’s home, and the odd dynamic between him and a mysterious visitor (Jordan Cowan) who interrupts a spot of late-night whisky drinking. Also, what’s that small vial of liquid he’s fondling intently? Hmmn.
“You’ve come to the wrong door”.
Oh dear. The Visitor—barefoot, dripping wet, and with more than a passing resemblance to Morticia Addams—has entered Every Horror You’ve Ever Seen. Or has she?
Patrick—middle-aged and mopey—says his car has been “playing up for a few days” and that’s why he can’t give her a lift into town. Phew. Can he lend her his phone so she can make a call? He doesn’t own a mobile. But, he can give her the change she needs for the payphone. Except, the gate is locked, and Patrick will have to walk her; but, only when the storm has calmed. In the meantime, why doesn’t she let him dry her shirt? Why doesn’t she take a shower? He tells her she looks familiar…
Bell’s script—terse and ambiguous—is heavy on bait-n-switch moments as a way of keeping us guessing about Patrick's motives – and The Visitor’s. He’s guarded; she’s twitchy. Is Patrick running from something? Probably. She contradicts herself at different points. The pace is slow, but not glacial. Anyway, whatever is lost in narrative propulsion is saved by the sense of dread that builds in step with the storm raging outside.
As the storm rages, we learn that The Visitor fell asleep on the beach and was trying to get home. Patrick is kept awake because feral kids bother him “at all hours”. While he talks about paranoia and the past, The Visitor feels comfortable enough to poke through trinkets on a wooden stand. There’s a necklace with an inscription. While she was in the shower, Patrick has made the visitor some soup. She’s skeeved out, so she pours it in his boot when he’s not looking. “You can leave, you know” he says. She stays. They play cards. They build an uneasy trust.
When the storm eventually cuts power to the mobile home, Patrick is forced outside to check the circuit breaker. Inside, The Visitor makes a discovery which sets the film’s endgame in motion.
That endgame contains a twist. Observant viewers may have collected enough of Bell’s breadcrumbs to see it coming, but whether you did or didn’t, it’s suitably visceral when it does arrive.
What’s the film about? It’s about the end result of guilt, loneliness, alcoholism, and sleep deprivation. Oh, and the importance of wearing earplugs. Bladdy kids!