There are scary movies where everything is fleshed out, where filmmakers and craftspeople show a nightmare in all its horrifying detail. In those kind of films, jump scares and reveals can even be a relief, allowing the tension and anticipation to deescalate so you can move on to the next thrill.

Filmmaker Babak Anvari’s Hallow Road, in theaters Friday, is the opposite. Written by William Gillies, Hallow Road is the kind of minimalistic thriller that knows that sometimes all you need to do is establish the right mood and your audience’s imagination will take it from there. It is all ambiguity and escalation, and relief is not in the cards.

The film begins at 2 a.m., panning across a leafy forest floor to a bloodied sneaker on the ground before cutting to a long, eerie shot inside a famil

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