A Lonely Place To Die (15)

Julian Gilbey's vertiginous thriller begins promisingly, not least in its suggestively eerie wide shots of the Scottish mountains and forests.

Yomping through the latter a group of city pals happen upon something horrific: a young girl, buried but still alive in a makeshift grave. Melissa George, as the alpha female of the cast, takes the initiative in their rescue mission, but the plans go awry when two men start shooting at them. While the film remains in the picturesque wilds it generates pace and tension; once it switches to the kidnappers and the ransom plot it fatally loses pressure, then deflates entirely on arriving at a remote Highland village where a street festival and fireworks display provide a convenient distraction. The tautness of the early passages is all but forgotten in a welter of excessive slo-mo and gunfire.