Review: You'll Never Find Me (2024)

Now available on Shudder.

Over the past decade, Australia has emerged as one of the leading exporters of horror films. We've seen The Babadook lead the way in the subgenre of elevated psychological horror, Relic stand as one of the few films playing in theaters during the pandemic, and this past year bring us both Talk to Me and The Royal Hotel. Many are also eagerly awaiting the release of Late Night with Devil, which hits select theaters today and Shudder on April 19th.

In the meantime, Shudder subscribers can fill that void with another Australian horror film, You'll Never Find Me, which drops on the streamer today. Like many of the newer films found there, it's a small, isolated, cat-and-mouse suspense picture.

As a terrible thunderstorm rages outside, Patrick (Brendan Rock), isolated in his trailer, receives The Visitor (Jordan Cowan, also a producer on the film), a woman looking for a place to wait it all out. She's mysterious and none of her stories seem to track. Barefoot and claiming to have fallen asleep on the beach, by the next time she references her day, the details seem to have changed. 

He doesn't want to take her in at first, saying, "I'm afraid you knocked on the wrong door." He does eventually take her in, offers her a shower, and warms up some soup for her...but she still seems to have knocked on the wrong door. He's not exactly just a kind stranger offering someone in need a helping hand. He seems to be moving in slow-motion, going as far as to say that he tries to “avoid sleep altogether,” offering up more deep musings than actionable steps like driving her into town. 

With nowhere to go, this single-location two-hander builds a lingering dread that grows into full-on claustrophobia. 

A debut feature from co-directors Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen, they're working with a micro-budget, trying to fill their 96 minutes with all of their ideas. Some of them work, like the giallo-inspired direction the film's momentum carries us to. Other moments are less successful, like Patrick's foreboding mumblings. 

Bell and Allen have worked with the actors before on a short film and you can tell that it's well rehearsed and tight. According to the directors, they would shoot as much as 15 pages in one day and nothing about the film comes across as messy, from the script to the performances to Maxx Corkindale's gloomy cinematography. It's quite an impressive debut, even if the film isn't quite as suspenseful as I may have wanted it to be. 

If anything, it shows promise from all involved, particularly Bell and Allen, who seem to be fully formed directors who just need more to work with. Supporting this film will get them there. Shudder already gives you more than your money's worth with a constant stream of new releases every week and if hypnotic horror or the indies from Australia are your thing, this is one you should check out.