Crew
Directors – Josiah Allen & Indianna Bell, Screenplay – Indianna Bell, Producers – Josiah Allen, Indianna Bell, Jordan Cowan & Christine Williams, Photography – Maxx Corkindale, Music – Darren Lim, Visual Effects Supervisor – Marty Pepper, Special Effects – Jack Bennett, Joseph Clarke, Andre Donadio & Brode Foscario, Production Design – Hannah Sitters. Production Company – Stakeout Films/Someone Like U Productions.
Cast
Brendan Rock (Patrick), Jordan Cowan (The Visitor)
Plot
Patrick lives a solitary life alone in a home in the corner of a trailer park. One night he is interrupted by a girl knocking at the door, seeking shelter from the rainstorm. He invites her inside and gives her dry clothing and food. However, as the two wait for the storm to abate, it becomes apparent that neither might be telling the truth.
You’ll Never Find Me was the debut feature from the Australian directing partnership of Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell, who had together made four short films prior to this. The film made the rounds of various film festivals and was then released to Shudder.
There is a lot of similarity between You’ll Never Find Me and the underrated The Caller (1988), which consisted on a series of psychological games between Malcolm McDowell as a visitor to Madolyn Smith’s cabin in the woods, which became a joyous dance where you could not be sure who was telling the truth as each kept picking holes in either’s story.
There is a very similar sense here of a story about a stranger (Jordan Cowan) arriving at the trailer home of a recluse (Brendan Rock), being invited in, whereupon a series of psychological games ensues where we cannot be sure who is telling the truth or which of them has sinister intent. Rock insists the gates of the park are locked – “How did I get in?” Cowan turns and asks him. Her story changes from coming from the beach to being at the pub. She distrusts the soup he serves her and thinks he is peeping in on her when she has a shower. Things start to seem more sinister when she sees a scratch on his back and another lip print on the glass of alcohol that he serves her.
You’ll Never Find Me is very much a slow burn film. The mood that Allen and Bell create with the two characters, who are often framed in almost complete darkness as they sit opposite one another, is impeccable. There is the sense of something dreadful about to happen – and Allen and Bell do a far better job of creating the mood of this than the recent Old Man (2022), which had a very similar set-up. Indeed, there is a superb economy to You’ll Never Find Me, The Caller and Old Man – all three take place on a single set with only two actors.
Just like Old Man, You’ll Never Find Me loses its place when it comes to the third act. [PLOT SPOILERS] The film lets what is happening out of the bag during the last thirty minutes, which is not nearly as interesting a revelation as all the build-up and psychological dancing around the two characters suggested. The last twenty of these are taken up by … I’m not exactly sure what. Brendan Rock seems to be having a series of hallucinations. We are not sure if he is having guilt about those he has killed or else these are ghosts. Or even if he is imagining everything and that this is all just a figment of his isolated, fragmenting mind. Nothing is clear. It disappointingly ends up being much thunder and lightning to very little effect, not to mention the letdown of an excellent build-up.
Trailer here