Having screened as the opening film of 2024’s Glasgow FrightFest weekend, You’ll Never Find Me directed by Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen is an Australian thriller laced with paranoia and a hint of gothic horror.
Patrick, played by Brendan Rock, lives an isolated existence in a trailer park. As a storm begins to take hold, a young woman (Jordan Cowan) knocks on his door seeking refuge and help after her car broke down. What results is a tense exchange between the two which will eventually cause secrets to be laid bare as the rain and thunder outside violently rages on.
You’ll Never Find Me is an exceptional gothic chamber piece that forgoes the usual sprawling mansion inhabited by the uncanny upperclass for a more unconventional setting of a modest abode in the back of a trailer park. However it does retain the looming thunderstorm and relentless rain that provide the stereotypical atmospheric backdrop of most gothic stories. Despite the locational downsizing, the set piece doesn’t feel small or cramped with the mobile home still providing a strange feeling of an expansive space where secrets are hidden in every nook and cranny.
Rock plays Patrick as quiet yet uneasy, leaving viewers in the dark as to his position within the initial setup. Is he an unsuspecting inhabitant or is there something far more sinister covertly lurking underneath his seemingly hospitable actions. Similarly, the character arc of Cowan’s ‘the woman’ is at times highly questionable during the initial sequences with an ever changing back story. Is she an innocent victim of faulty mechanics or a home invader? The tension is palpable as we, the audience, attempt to decipher the roles that each will fulfill.
You’ll Never Find Me is a depiction of not just a haunted house, but also a haunted mind. Despite its crawling and dialogue heavy first half, the film rewards audiences with a satisfying and disturbing crescendo of a final sequence, complete with a sensory overload of disorientating sound design and dizzying visuals.
4 out of 5 Screams
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