RADIUS traces a circle of confusion and fear around a pair of strangers, conjoined by event and circumstance into a hyperexistential bond of dependence and eventual revelation. Spare and spooky, the 2017 sci-fi thriller was written & directed by Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard. We dare a guess that Stephen King would love their 93 minute road trip to trauma.

‘Liam’ (Diego Klattenhoff) comes to, next to a wrecked vehicle on a country road, a lightning storm in the distance. Another car shows up and swerves to a stop in the grass. The driver is dead, her eyes glassed over. When Liam makes it to a roadside diner, he finds everyone inside has been fatally stricken like the driver. Making it to his house, he sees reports on the TV about numerous deaths in the area, possibly from a bio weapon or virus. A stranger (Charlotte Sullivan) shows up: ‘Jane’ has apparent amnesia, something she shares with Liam. They cautiously, then perilously, team up to seek answers to what has happened them and who or what is responsible for the growing number of sudden, dramatic fatalities.

With a few allowances for leaps in logical progression done to move the narrative forward, the disaster-in-miniature is gripping all the way, thanks to the slow burn ratchet of the writing, direction that is clever but thankfully not indulgent and taut, keenly modulated performances from the compelling, well-matched leads.

We’ll say no more other than “see it.”

Supposed to be set in Connecticut, it was shot in Selkirk, Manitoba. With Brett Donahue.