“A Lonely Place To Die” is a thriller released in 2011 written by Will and Julien Gilbey about a group of hikers and mountaineers who find a young girl buried alive in some box in a remote region of the Scottish Highlands. The young Croatian is being held for ransom and the two heavily armed culprits are none too pleased to not find her they left her.
The film stars nobody I have ever heard of. Melissa George, Alex Newman, and Karel Roden are included in the cast. Melissa George has been in some fairly well-known films such as “The Limey” and “Mulholland Drive” and apparently was once nominated for the Golden Globe. She just isn’t someone who was immediately recognizable to me.
Julien Gilbey directed this piece which he apparently co-wrote with his brother, Will. It wasn’t a terrible effort. It’s not a great one either, but I have seen much worse than this.
There is quite an impressive body count as the two ruthless kidnappers chase our intrepid nature lovers through the Highlands. Lots of people die spectacularly. There is a Serbian mobster accompanied by a couple of mercenaries coming in to negotiate the release of the little girl on behalf of her father, who happens to be some sort of war criminal. I thought Karel Roden put in a pretty compelling performance as the enigmatic Darko.
There is some beautiful shots of the Highlands throughout the film. The stunts were pretty convincing. Lots of blood splatter to satisfy those with a taste for that sort of thing. The performances managed to avoid being too off-putting for what still seemed to be a B movie.
There is quite a significant reliance on implausible consequences which induced an eyeroll or two, but there was much in this film that still worked fairly well.
I would recommend this movie for a very slow weekend when all of the other cinematic preferences have been viewed. There is nothing truly great or unique about this film, but it was a little better than I expected.
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