The Girl In The Trunk – Movie Review (2/5)

THE GIRL IN THE TRUNK is a new claustrophobic thriller made with a low budget and a lot of passion. Unfortunately, it will also feel familiar if you’ve watched Trunk. Read our full The Girl in the Trunk movie review here!

THE GIRL IN THE TRUNK is a thriller made in Denmark by Danish filmmakers, but it’s made to look as if it’s shot in Texas. It’s also entirely English-language which should be a huge advantage. Especially as the plot is very similar to the German movie Trunk already released on Prime Video earlier this year.

Still, with such a low budget and a whole lot of heart and passion from the cast and crew, it’s the kind of movie I can’t help but applaud. I just wholeheartedly wish it felt more original. And if I hadn’t watched Trunk just a few short months ago, it surely would.

Continue reading our The Girl in the Trunk movie review below. Find it on Digital from May 28, 2024.

The antihero protagonist

In The Girl in the Trunk, a woman wakes up inside a trunk. Obviously, having just stated this premise, one could wonder why the title isn’t “The Woman in the Trunk”, but for some reason, “girl” is always the go-to female descriptor in genre movies.

I mean, just think of the surviving horror movie character being labeled “The Final Girl” no matter if she’s 16 or 60 years old.

Anyway, getting back to this movie, the woman in the trunk has been kidnapped and is now entrapped in the enclosed space of a speeding car’s trunk. She has a phone with her and can actually try to reach out for help. However, she isn’t entirely ready to do that at first, which is due to her own backstory.

Let’s just say she is quite the antihero herself. Oh no, she isn’t the bad guy herself, but she has her own issues that she’s dealing with in a less-than-stellar way. Basically, many of the characters in The Girl in the Trunk are very much in the gray area of morality.

This is something I like and applaud other movies (especially the Spanish and South Korean productions) for, so I am loving it here as well.

The Girl in the Trunk is not a Trunk remake

For anyone who has watched – or just read the plot for – Trunk on Prime Video, this new thriller will sound very familiar. In fact, even too familiar, I almost thought The Girl in the Trunk was a very quickly made remake of Trunk.

In both cases, a female protagonist is trapped inside a trunk while communicating with the driver/kidnapper and people on the outside who she needs help from. I will say that the kidnapper almost has a bigger role in this one, but maybe it’s just more of a different role.

Whatever you want to say about the kidnapper, Caspar Phillipson is brilliant in the role. He always is really. The man has an uncanny resemblance to John F. Kennedy which is why he has already portrayed him in several productions – including Jackie, Project Blue Book, and Blonde. To name just a few!

Yes, despite being a native Dane.

Of course, I also have to recognize that playing a villain character is often more fun than the victim struggling to survive. Even so, I loved seeing Caspar Philipson leaning into this darker type of character. He could easily be a horror villain!

Of course, I also want to highlight the title character. Her name is Manda and she’s portrayed by Katharina Sporrer, who has the job of trying to get us to root for her. Even as we get to know her. And yes, Katharina Sporrer did manage to win me over.

Watch The Girl in the Trunk on Digital

Jonas Kvist Jensen is the writer and director of The Girl in the Trunk and I can’t help but honor the passion he put into making this movie. With no real support from any of the major Danish production companies, he went out and got the movie made, then sold it afterward.

Talk about having faith in your project. And it is a good and solid movie. Is it a masterpiece? No, it really isn’t. But could one of the next movies from Jonas Kvist Jensen be a masterpiece? Why not?! Whenever any filmmaker goes all-in on their dreams, I don’t see why they shouldn’t keep going.

As popular and awarded as Danish filmmaking is, there is also a huge need for diversity. Not least in terms of genre movies. There is such a huge focus on drama and creating the Oscar-contenders that our Scandinavian neighbors have long surpassed us in making and releasing horror and genre movies in general.

Sure, Speak No Evil (watch it on Shudder) is the one recent exception, and maybe filmmakers like Jonas Kvist Jensen, who won’t let the nay-sayers stop him, could be someone creating a new Danish movie bound for a US remake.

The Girl In The Trunk is out as Digital Download in the USA & Canada and UK & Ireland from May 28, 2024.

Details

Director: Jonas Kvist Jensen
Writer: Jonas Kvist Jensen
Stars: Katharina Sporrer, Caspar Phillipson, Hother Bøndorff