Nowhere Fast (A LONELY PLACE TO DIE Plays Toronto After Dark)

Monday night brought me back for a second (and final) helping of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. After allowing my philosophical sci-fi side out to play on Sunday, it was time to hold on tight and watch a deadly chase in A LONELY PLACE TO DIE.

The film centres on a group of mountain climbers. In the beginning, we are introduced to Alison, Ed, and Andy (Melissa George, Ed Speleers, and Eamonn Walker). They climb the sorts of spots that are not for the weak-willed, and in the opening moments of the film, we are made to understand what even a momentary lapse in concentration can cost. Soon though, the three rally up with their married friends Rob and Jenny (Alec Newman and Kate Magowan) with plans for further adventure.

As the group hikes to the spot of their next climb, they come upon a chilling discovery: A pipe sticking out of the ground, and the tiniest of voices coming from it. Once they feverishly dig into the earth, they find themselves staring down into a haphazard crypt…with a young girl cowering in fear inside it.

They decide quickly that they need to get her to safety, but that proves to be a deadly decision. As it happens, the men who buried her in that crypt haven’t gone far…and they aren’t all that pleased that the girl is back above ground.

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE is a long game of cat & mouse that keeps the viewer engaged. Because that first scene gave us just a taste of the stakes on those cliffs, the film is able to get the audience’s back up anytime one of the climbers reaches for a rope and begins a descent (and you thought going up was scary!). What’s more, the fact that they are being stalked like game fills each scene with tension, since we’re not always sure where the hunters are at. What we are sure of, is that the hunters are talented…so any step can be a deadly one.

The film isn’t without its flaws though. What puzzled me on multiple occasions, was how the climbers could suffer what looked to be some pretty nasty injuries, but still get up and flee full-tilt. Likewise, we get intorduced to a team looking for the girl – men hired by her father to retrieve her from the kidnappers – that we don’t need to spend so much time with. It’s a minor flaw, since we only check in with them once or twice, but those moments that the film does check in with them, I was wanting to get back to the chase.

Since a healthy portion of the film features glorious aerial photography of the Scottish cliffs the characters have come to climb, A LONELY PLACE TO DIE gives provides some truly stunning visuals. Those visuals – both of the cliffs above and the isolated canyons below – go great lengths to make the audience feel the isolation of these characters, and just what is at stake as they traverse them….both for fun, and for their lives.