WHEN DID the bickering couple join bad mobile phone coverage and the gap-toothed petrol-station attendant as an essential cliché of modern horror films? If you see a woman scowling at her boyfriend while they drive through the murk, you know with some certainty that we’ll be seeing their innards before the night is through.

Anyway, this low-budget British horror handles that opening section quite well before descending into a morass of pointless running around and shouting.

Zakes (William Ash) and Beth (Christine Bottomley) are driving angrily along an English motorway – she’s annoyed at his emotional unavailability; he suspects her of having an affair – when he catches a glimpse of a naked woman caged in the rear of an articulated lorry. Zakes phones the police, but, before the Black Marias can arrive, Beth is abducted and he is forced to rescue the damsel unaided.

It's a decent set up for a horror movie and, unlike the perpetrators of superficially similar British shockers such as Donkey Punch, debuting director Mark Tonderai demonstrates a degree of restraint in his marshalling of the mayhem. The film may feature the odd nail through the palm and the occasional screwdriver in the forehead, but its 16 certificate is probably appropriate.

Unfortunately, Tonderai fails to offer any brooding tension to compensate for the lack of gore. Once Beth goes missing, Zakes has little else to do but drive about the countryside blubbing like a sissy. Long before the mechanical final showdown trundles into view, most horror fans will have turned off into their own metaphorical lay-by for a relaxing snooze.

Maybe restraint is not such a great thing after all.

Directed by Mark Tonderai. Starring William Ash, Christine Bottomley, Andreas Wisniewski, Claire Keelan, Stuart McQuarrie 16 cert, Cineworld, Dublin, 91 min★★