CineVegas 2009

Irene and Daniel are an upwardly mobile couple that is a few weeks away from the birth of their first child and a bad business deal closer to financial collapse. When a family wedding (and a personal loan from Irene's wealthy father) draw them out of Manhattan to venture upstate, they lose their way on an unfamiliar wooded roads. What was supposed to be a regular drive alters their lives forever when they pick up a hitchhiker.

In spite of its simple plot, the intelligence that permeates David Barker’s rigorous and personal re-imagining of the genre film is striking and terrifying. With its tense interiors, insistent blend of suspense and drama, rich character detail, and minimalist aesthetic, DAYLIGHT feels unlike other works that make up the American film landscape. Alternately infuriating and harrowing, DAYLIGHT is a potent piece of shock cinema that thrives on making the audience uncomfortable. The slow boil of this genre piece nonetheless deftly evades falling into genre traps. Such filmmaking decisions imbue with the action a depth of character that enhances the terror to alarming effect. Featuring bold and riveting performances by the entire cast, Barker’s film keeps you completely involved emotionally from moment to excruciating moment.