Panicked parents Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys race to the rescue of their teenage daughter in the new trailer for Hallow Road. Director Babak Anvari’s unique take on the ticking-clock thriller takes place almost entirely inside a car as its lead characters drive through the night to get to their young daughter, who has been in a car accident involving a pedestrian. Critics lavished Hallow Road with strong reviews after its SXSW premiere, with ScreenRant giving the movie 9 stars out of 10.

Following its strong SXSW showing, XYZ Films has dropped a trailer for Pike and Rhys’ harrowing new thriller, touting Hallow Road‘s positive reviews while previewing its single-location setting:

The clip opens with a literal ticking clock, quickly diving into the action as Maddie (Pike) and Frank (Rhys) receive a late-night call from their daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell), who tells them she’s hit a pedestrian with her vehicle. The panicked couple drive through the night to get to their child, while Pike, who seems to be a doctor, tries to talk Alice through giving CPR to the pedestrian.

The trailer then goes through some strange twists and turns, as a mysterious stranger joins Alice on the phone. The daughter seems to be in danger beyond just the peril of being found by the police, creating even more desperate urgency, until the chilling final moment when Alice screams, “Her face is changing!” and the stranger says blankly, “You all asked for this.”

What The New Trailer Means For Hallow Road

Something Creepy Is Going On

Hallow Road’s gripping trailer teases that there’s more to the movie than meets the eye. What at first appears to be a straight-forward ticking-clock thriller is revealed to be something creepier, though what exactly is going on with Alice, the injured pedestrian with the changing face and the weirdly calm stranger, is impossible to say from the clues in the clip (as it should be).

Unspeakable horror-movie things seem to be going on in Hallow Road, and critics were impressed by whatever unpredictable twists and turns the story takes, as the above clip touts. ScreenRant’s own take said:

Hallow Road is captivating for its entire 80-minute runtime. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and its compelling narrative — which captures the themes involving parenting, consequences for Alice, and just how far Maddie and Frank are willing to go to protect her from her own actions — lingers in our hearts throughout the film (and after).

Director Anvari has spoken about Hallow Road‘s unique approach to the thriller form, which keeps the focus on Pike and Rhys, who spend most of the movie inside their speeding car, while keeping the hysterical Alice off-screen. Though challenges were inherent in doing the film this way, Anvari told ScreenRant that he enjoyed solving them:

“It was all set almost entirely in a car. As a masochistic filmmaker, I was like, ‘This is an amazing challenge. I really want to do this’ … I knew exactly, immediately, how I [was] going to do it, approach it, and shoot it.”

Our Take On The Hallow Road Trailer

The Clip Succeeds In Building Intrigue

XYZ Films’ Hallow Road trailer succeeds in getting across a few key selling points, starting with Pike and Rhys, actors with a strong dramatic track-record. Indeed, it’s hard to think of two stars more suited to playing terrified parents finding themselves having to maneuver through an increasingly desperate set of circumstances.

The movie’s critical acclaim is also strongly outlined in the above clip, appealing to those on the look-out for offbeat film festival movies. Overall, the trailer does a good job conveying the movie’s tension, while hinting at its twists, without giving away too much of the mystery.

The acclaimed Hallow Road releases in summer 2025.