Alone (2020) -
This is a decent yet generic as its title thriller about a woman who tries to evade a serial killer in the wilderness. In other words, it's pretty much the kind of movie you would expect to come up after filtering on the thriller genre on your favorite streaming app. The woman is Jessica (Jules Wilcox), a recent widow who packs her things and makes a long trek to start over again, which requires driving through woodsy small-town Oregon. During her trip, she frequently runs afoul of a bespectacled and mustachioed fellow (Marc Menchaca) who may not share his doppelganger Ned Flanders’ best intentions.
Movies in this genre live or die on the plausibility of their lucky breaks, red herrings, the sense that the hero's and villain’s decisions make, etc. Except for one glaring convenience, the movie respects the viewer's intelligence more than I thought it would. It also does a pretty good job at integrating smart phones into the story and the way it favors practical over CGI effects, especially during the likely
Duel-inspired driving scenes, keeps things visceral. As for the villain, his smugness really got under my skin in a memorable way.
I know I’m not the only one who often just wants to turn on the TV and put something on that offers exactly what you expect it to, but I still can’t help but feel disappointed that it offers no more and no less than what its two-sentence description on Hulu promises. Also, as someone who loves everything about the woods from their photographic opportunities to hiking through them, I was disappointed by the relatively ordinary cinematography. With that said, it's far from the best thriller mostly set outdoors I've ever seen, but when it comes to streaming offerings in this genre, you could do far worse. Oh, and it has a pejorative containing the word "delicious" you're bound to add to your lexicon.