Anna Kendrick and Wunmi Mosaku Star in the Underrated Thriller Alice, Darling

Alice, Darling, a 2022 film directed by Mary Nighy and written by Alanna Francis, stars Anna Kendrick and Wunmi Mosaku and takes a quieter, more understated approach to the thriller form. Rather than relying on action set pieces or heavy-handed scares, the film turns typical genre formulas on their head and finds tension in small, intimate moments.

The story follows three friends on a week away, and Alice’s anxious behavior — checking her phone at every ping, slipping into the bathroom to send a suggestive photo, making up a work trip — reveals an emotionally abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick).

Alice shows no physical wounds, but she carries herself as if bracing for a blow; flashes of Simon’s overbearing commentary are laid over moments of peace, and a subplot about a missing girl further tightens the film’s grip. Nighy builds suspense without the usual trappings of the genre: there are only a handful of minor jump scares and no action sequences, yet the stakes feel, at times, like life or death.

alice darling, anna kendrick, wunmi mosaku, mary nighy, alanna francis, thriller, emotional abuse, charlie carrick, suspense, missing girl