You can never go wrong with a thriller movie: everyone loves those suspenseful moments in a movie when you don’t know what’s gonna happen next. “Alone,” streaming on Hulu, is a classic-feeling, thriller-kidnapping movie. 

The plot is great, the characters are well developed, there’s beautiful scenery and the suspense is definitely there.

Soon after losing her husband, Jessica (Jules Wilcox) starts moving from Portland to start over with her life. During her drive out of town, she gets cut off and almost crashes because an inconsiderate car seems to be following her. 

The guy driving the car is not given a name, but is known as Man (Marc Menchaca). He approaches Jessica and apologizes for cutting her off on the road. Jessica ends up with a flat tire though, and Man attacks, drugs and kidnaps her. 

Waking up in the middle of the woods, Jessica does everything she can to escape. She even ran away once and met a stranger in the woods, but Man ended up killing the stranger before he was able to help Jessica.

Man is played as the serial killer with a double life, hiding what he does from his family. His wife and kid at home are frequently mentioned, and Jessica just so happens to call them at some point to let them know the truth about the man they think they know.

In the film, Man wears those typical grandpa classes, which really give him those Jeffrey Dahmer vibes. A menacing skinny blonde man with oversized glasses: it was obvious he was a serial killer right from the start.

This movie is all about a cat-and-mouse game. The cat can’t seem to hold onto the mouse long enough, but the mouse is not able to escape long enough to be free. 

The movie has an open ending, we will never be 100% sure how things end for these characters, but I like when thriller movies do that. 

The best part of this thriller movie is there is no dumb girl in danger making obviously bad decisions. There was never a point where I felt Jessica only got kidnapped because she was stupid or naive, it was refreshing to not have a cheesy, kidnap-thriller story.

Thrillers can be hit or miss, and a lot of them lately have been a big miss lately. This film did not disappoint.

It also wasn’t too complicated to follow. You were always in the loop on what was going on and where everyone was. The film did a nice job of just telling its story, instead of hiding secrets from you.

The only reason I wouldn’t rate this film a five out of five is because the plot is a little too familiar. The whole highway-stalking and woods-kidnapping thing is far from an original story idea.

I started this movie rooting for it to be worth my time, and after viewing it, it’s safe to say I would watch it again. There was non-stop tension throughout the whole film: exactly what you’d want from a thriller.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars