Prisoners

A disturbing slow burn that keeps you hooked until the last second, Prisoners stars Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in this gripping crime drama.

It’s Thanksgiving time in a rural town tucked away in Pennsylvania where the Dover and Birch families reside. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and his stepchildren, Ralph and Anna, go for a walk with the Birch children, Joy and Eliza, after dinner. On their outing they come across an unfamiliar RV parked in the neighborhood and decide to turn back. After dinner the youngest girls, Anna and Joy, leave to go to the Dover family’s home a couple minutes away. When they fail to arrive and cannot be found anywhere, the family notices that the strange RV has disappeared. Fearing the worst, the families reach out to the police for help and Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to the case. He begins to discover that there is something more sinister at work. 

Prisoners puts meticulously cruel and psychopathic expectations on full display and shows how deeply these actions affect the families and victims in this situation. Desperation influences the hurting father who is determined to do whatever it takes to bring his daughter back home alive while the town’s only detective frustratingly follows the law to uncover the truth. Overall, this movie builds up the characters with a strong foundation that refuses to crumble at the hands of such hideous criminals and should be viewed through its entirety to fully understand the compelling, subtly layered details leading you through the dark. 

Prisoners is currently streaming on Hulu.