One of 2025’s very best thriller movies is now streaming at home

We believe this 80-minute, real-time, shot-in-Ireland thriller will someday be seen as a cult classic.

Filmed in Ireland, though set in the UK, the thriller - accessible through the service NOW - is only 80-minutes-long and takes place nearly entirely in real-time.

It stars Matthew Rhys (The Beast in Me) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) as married couple Frank and Maddie, who receive a frantic late-night call from their 18-year-old daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell).

Panicked, Alice tells her parents that she struck a pedestrian with her car while driving along a remote forest road.

Frank and Maddie immediately hop into their car and drive towards their daughter, racing to get there before anyone else stumbles across the scene.

This is as Maddie, a paramedic, tries to talk Alice through the situation over the phone.

The camera stays focused on the parents' car as they make the journey, heading deeper into the night.

"Disturbing revelations threaten to tear the family apart as they soon realise they might not be the only ones driving down Hallow Road," the plot synopsis adds.

Hallow Road is an absolutely nerve-rattling thriller that works on so many different levels.

Taking place mostly in or around a Land Rover, it is remarkable just how much nervous energy director Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow) can conjure within the tight confines of the car, recalling similar modern classics like Buried, The Guilty and Locke.

The film is also a brilliant showcase for two of the world's best working actors, Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike. The pair somehow manages to convey a whole life for their characters, even though the viewer nearly only ever witnesses them in real-time, as they deal with an incredibly stressful situation.

William Gillies' screenplay is remarkable, too. He starts by placing his central married couple in the type of nightmare situation that is certain to have audience members wondering what they would do in similar circumstances and how far they would go to protect their loved ones.

It turns out, however, that this dilemma is only the start of Frank and Maddie's torment. Over the course of the movie's tight and punchy runtime, Gillies twists the knife even further as he unexpectedly and thrillingly plays with genre, allowing him to explore themes regarding parental fear, guilt and trauma in much more visceral ways.

On that note, make sure to keep watching during the end credits of Hallow Road. This is not for any extra scene, but rather a detail regarding the making of the film that may shine a light on the thriller's effectively enigmatic ending.

Hallow Road is currently streaming in Ireland and the UK through the service NOW.

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