Alone works well as a suspense thriller that somewhat subverts the structure of these kinds of movies, but it retreats to formula during the climax instead of maintaining its momentum.

Jules Willcox stars as Jessica Swanson, a woman from Portland, Oregon, who packs up and leaves in order to escape the fact that she’s been recently widowed.

On the journey, she encounters a vehicle ahead of her that refuses to let her pass and by not doing so, she nearly has a head-on collision with a truck.

Later that night, Jessica meets up with the driver who is only known in the credits as Man (Mark Menchaca), who wears glasses and thin hair. He sort of bears a resemblance to Kevin Bacon only with the aforementioned features.

Man tries to apologize to Jessica and she accepts, but later on Man asks for help as his vehicle needs work and she refuses because she becomes paranoid. She’s right.

Man then kidnaps her and takes her hostage to his remote cabin in the wilderness and she tries to escape and actually succeeds.

While still in the woods, Jessica comes upon a hunter named Robert (Anthony Heald) who tries to help her.

At this point, the rest of the movie would require me to go into spoiler territory, so I’ll stop there.

Alone is a thriller that makes sensational work of its atmosphere in the woods by presenting Jessica with obstacles that we’re not sure how she’ll survive, but she displays a surprising amount of resourcefulness and that may or may come into play.

As for its plot, in the beginning, I kept waiting for Russell Crowe’s character in Unhinged to turn and see if he and Man would join up in their pursuits of terrorizing unsuspecting victims.

The sound design and lack of music are also effective as the sound is heightened in order to substitute for a conventional score. It’s creepy and unsettling and does make for a convincing alternative.

Just like the title suggests, I was alone when I went to see it and I was the only one in the theater which might make for an effective experience.

Alone does work as long as you can forgive the shortcomings of its conclusion.

Grade: B+

(Rated R for violent content and language.)