After only dating for two weeks, Tom (De Caestecker) invites Lucy (Englert) to a music festival in Northern Irish countryside, booking a romantic room in an isolated hotel. But after a tense encounter with locals in a pub, they get lost on country lanes that are of course beyond phone coverage and GPS. The hotel's signs send them in circles, and as night falls they wonder if they'll ever find it. This stirs up tension in the young couple, which isn't helped when they literally run into a young guy (Leech) in the road.

With only three people in the cast, the roles are pretty demanding. And the actors are terrific at generating subtle layers of intensity in their shifting interaction. All three are complex and authentic, reacting badly in some situations, doing boneheaded things and sometimes surprising themselves with their selflessness. But it becomes clear that something very nasty is lurking in these woods, and as the night turns violent, the film seems to get lost on these backroads as well.

Writer-director Lovering creates the atmosphere effectively, with the gorgeous landscapes turning menacing as darkness and rain arrive. And it's in the increasingly strained glances between Tom and Lucy that the film grabs hold of us. Clearly, this is his intention, playing with these people and forcing them into a frightening situation in which they react in uncharacteristic ways. But it all feels somewhat gimmicky to us, and we never really buy the menace.

Fortunately, there's a terrific sense of subtext: perhaps the real terror is that Tom and Lucy might not be right for each other. So it's intriguing to see them quietly evaluate their relationship as the threat becomes increasingly externalised. De Caestecker and Englert are good enough to make us vividly feel their self-doubts, frustrations and, yes, terror, even if we never feel these things ourselves while watching the film. And despite a discordant score telling us exactly when we should be unnerved, Lovering is smart enough to get out of the way and let his fine actors perform between the lines.

themes, language, violence

25.Apr.13