Quim (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is driving through the countryside on the way to see his ex-girlfriend when he finds he has to refuel, so stops at the services up ahead. He asks the attendant to fill up his car's tank and goes inside to use the phone, the reception for his mobile not being so great out here, and as he phones the ex he notices a young woman (María Valverde) enter and shoplift a chocolate bar, something he chooses to ignore as he cannot get through on the phone, merely getting an answering machine. As the gents is out of order, Quim has to use the ladies, but then has a close encounter...
First things first with King of the Hill, or El rey de la montaña as it was known in Spain, there's absolutely nothing funny about the lead character's name. Nothing at all. This is a very serious film, after all, and director Gonzalo López-Gallego wouldn't be going around giving his characters funny names, would he? Anyway, Quim probably means something completely different in Spain. So let's leave it there. As it turns out, the protagonist is a bit of a pussy (sorry) because he spends most of the rest of the film hightailing it away from the villains, who we do not see until the story is almost over, and neither does he.
The film keeps its secrets about what is actually going on well, as we are left as much in the dark as Quim is for most of the time. At first it appears that he is being punished for his brief sex act with the young shoplifting woman that he enjoyed in the bathroom of the services, especially as it turns out his wallet is now missing once she leaves. He goes to the attendant to explain why he cannot pay, but is then told that the woman already covered the cost of the petrol. Still, the wallet is missing, and Quim heads off after her, which is when the next big mishap occurs as he drives through the remote landscape and someone shoots at him.
Understandably alarmed, he finds a place to stop, get out and survey the damage - a bullet hole in the engine - when suddenly he is hit in the leg and has to limp back into the car in a state of panic. He does not get far, because there is a tractor blocking the road once he reaches the cover of the forest, and so it goes on, with that elusive phone signal no help (always the case in these survival thrillers and horrors). He does manage to run over a figure pointing a rifle at him, but he had friends and soon Quim is being fired at again. Then, as luck would have it after his car has given up the ghost, he meets the young woman once more, and finds out her name is Bea, which is about as much as we do find out about her.
So is the plot punishing Quim for cheating on his ex? I don't think it is, as it comes across as more intent on emphasising the randomness of the situation: they have not been specifically targeted, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. From then on we are in that old favourite, Most Dangerous Game territory, and the landscape almost become a character in itself, but only when it proves as hostile as the attackers. Along the way, Quim and Bea meet two suspicious-minded cops who put them in jeopardy, and add a few more events to what is a fairly straightforward screenplay. By the end, the hunters have realised that violence, even on complete strangers, has consequences, so the film has a moral to impart along with the suspense sequences, yet once it's over what felt tense now looks on the flimsy side. Not bad while you're watching it, though. Music by David Crespo.
