The Girl in the Trunk (2024)

The Girl in the Trunk Review

The book The Horror Film: A Critical Introduction by Murray Leeder made me think about where the line between crime and horror is. They’re not too different from each other; both types of movies have a “final girl,” and many plot points are shared. So it was nice to find a different, small-scale thriller that plays with these tropes in some interesting ways like The Girl in the Trunk, written and directed by Jonas Kvist Jensen.

On Amanda’s (Katharina Sporrer) wedding day, she’s kidnapped before she even gets to the ceremony. She wakes up bound and gagged in the trunk of a moving car. Through her cellphone, her abductor controls whether or not Amanda can communicate with the outside world he even gets through to a 911 operator who asks her infuriating questions. She doesn’t know who took her (Caspar Phillipson), why they did it, where they’re going or if she’ll be raped at any second or murdered right away.

Amanda punches out the truck lock; she looks out at rolling countryside, but shockingly, it doesn’t tell her where exactly she is. Not that she sees nothing. In one of this visually solid movie’s best-shot moments, Amanda watches a good samaritan die when he stops to help after seeing the vehicle on the side of the road. Her survival is predicated on back-and-forth conversations with her mystery kidnapper, she deals with a scorpion placed in the truck by him great shots of little beastie crawling slowly along contours of body and face amp up tension wonderfully.

The Girl in the Trunk takes an abduction story as basic as can be and adds smart direction and strong casting around it, couple that with tight screenplay, film becomes mini odyssey about redemption (duh), responsible parenting (uh-huh) and indictment of view that one’s insular world is the only one that matters (though it is scary, suspenseful, fearful of reptiles and terrified by sexual perversion serve hot to those game for journey).

Amanda’s kidnapping is a great and new way to start a movie. Jensen puts camera under car, and we watch in what feels like real time. All audience hears is lead’s dialogue; all they see are her wedding shoes. No over-the-top crashing music or cries for help just legs entering vehicle; muffled scuffle, single shoe dropping to pavement. Economical, simple and devastating in world of CGI and attempted large setups on small budgeted films sets tone for claustrophobic thriller that lasts until end, even when we finally leave trunk as things wrap up.

Admittedly, the final act is messy. But there’s no cleaner metaphor for how people feel about their place in this world than when they’re surrounded by rich and famous. Filmmaker comments on resilience of human spirit; what lies others have buried in them until pushed too far; cost it takes on someone involved in keeping such secrets within themselves with occasional moment of histrionics thrown into otherwise grounded narrative.

Ignoring those flaws is easy, partly due to Sporrer’s acting. She has to stay in one place and occasionally rotate. However, she does a good job within those parameters, showing fear and happiness convincingly. The creepy kidnapper is played by Phillipson. Although visually satisfying, The Girl in the Trunk is an interesting thriller because of its ending. So don’t forget to get your car fixed up before you take it for granted!

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