YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME

Australia, 2023, 96 minutes, Colour.

Brendan Brock, Jordan Cowan.

Directed by Josiah Allen, Indiana Bell.

For audiences who enjoy a thriller with atmosphere of suspense, mystery, suggested violence with some violent overtones, You’ll Never Find Me is worth finding.

Filmed in Adelaide, trailer set, two characters confined to the trailer, some glimpses outside, the trailer park and some children running away, a violent storm, the action opening at 2 AM.

Patrick (Brendan Brock) is an ageing loner, former electrician (and proud of it), suddenly disturbed by pounding on his caravan door, letting in drenched young woman who is never named (Jordan Cowan). She has a strange story, wanting a phone (which he doesn’t have), coming from the beach, some incoherent details in her story. Cautious, he offers her some hospitality.

For the rest of the film, there are certainly cat and mouse episodes, wet clothes, his supplying some, a shower, some soup, playing cards, some storytelling, Patrick with a long story about his wife, meeting her, her death. At times the young woman is calm, at other times searching the trailer, wary.

We know that there are going to be some twists by the end. And there are.

The film is effectively atmospheric, claustrophobic, tentative in relationships, frightening aspects, building up to a climax, ambiguous or not.

1. The title, reference to Patrick, to The Visitor?
2. A two hander, the glimpse of other characters, the action confined to the trailer, the outside view, the trailer park, the stormy night, the car and the rain? The interiors? The musical score?
3. The situation, Patrick, his age, electrician in the past, the electric socket and the screwdriver, his comment about putting the screwdriver in more apt places? Retirement? The trailer, the interiors, his started life? 2 AM, the vast storm, the pounding at the door, his listening to the song?
4. The visitor, young, her age, wet, Patrick’s warIness in letting her in, asking for a phone, to get a car, to get away? Different aspects of her story, on the beach, home or hotel, drinking, lost, Patrick not having a phone (and the later revelation)?
5. Patrick, tentative, inviting the visitor in, the discussions, her warIness, wet, removing the shirt to dry, the shower, the blood in the shower and her imagination, the drink and his making tea, the hot soup, the alcohol? Patrick putting her more at ease?
6. His story, meeting the young woman, drinking, helping her, the marriage? Her death by overdose? The early scene of his having the poison, audiences assuming it was for him, the revelation of the dead body, the story, and his poisoning the visitor?
7. Playing cards, at ease? The visitor and her looking at his trailer, finding her matching hearing? His denial?
8. The shift in attitudes, his aggression, the poison, the visitor searching, finding the dead body? Her aggression towards him, collapse, the dead body wrapped?
9. The issue of reality, Patrick’s imagination, serial killer, the image of the victims killed, the number? What was going on in his head?
10. And the final knock on the door, his story of the kids knocking and disappearing, glimpse of the boys running away?
11. The two hander, the horror elements, the violence, reality and imagination?