While She Was Out

While She Was Out (2008) is a lean survival thriller directed by Susan Montford — watch it online on iFILM. Della Myers is a suburban housewife going nowhere fast: an abusive husband at home, a Christmas Eve errand at the mall, and a parking-lot note that turns a bad night into a fight for her life.

Four young men take offense at the note she left on their windshield and follow her car into the construction-site woods at the edge of the neighborhood. Lucas Haas plays the ringleader with a flat, bored menace. Kim Basinger carries almost the entire film in near-silence — Della has no allies in that forest, only what she can improvise from the tools in her trunk.

Montford strips the story down to its essentials and keeps the location tight, which is exactly what gives the film its tension. It is blunter than most genre entries of its kind and more effective for it. Stream While She Was Out (2008) online on iFILM.