M-29

A serial killer is on the loose. Body parts have been found along the M-29 motorway outside Belgrade. Is it naive for a young woman who has missed her last bus to hitchhike home, or is it more foolish for the man who stops to let her into his car?

Designed as a tight two-hander that will keep your guessing, M-29 needs sharp dialogue and strong performances to justify its expositionary premise, but doesn't quite achieve either. Tamara Dragicevic effectively conveys damage and distance as the hitchhiker but is landed with such clunky lines, especially near the end, that she's unable to redeem the role. We may puzzle over her secrets and the driver's but neither is complex enough for us to care. The plotting is far too heavy-handed and the journey never acquires the sense of menace that ought to be there.

Overall, M-29 comes across like an attempt to make a horror movie by pasting together motifs and motivations from other films. The doll, the gloved hand, the stories about daddy that someone seems to have mistaken for characterisation. There's never a sense that this film has something of its own to say. The real mystery is why it was made.