Say this for the indie thriller “To Die Alone.” It certainly punches above its weight in setting, scenery and the way cinematographer Shelby Lee Parks filmed it.

Drone shots that traverse a sea of fir trees far into the horizon, with a distant snowy peak (Mount Shasta?), gorgeous waterfalls, lakes and trails. Let’s check Travelocity and Trip Advisor and see if there are any deals in a planning a visit to Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California.

Otherwise, the movie’s not even a wash, a slow, stumbling hike into perils in the wilderness and what the human psyche associates with it.

Writer-director Austin Smagalski goes for a tricky, derivative third act that wouldn’t exactly impress Ambrose Bierce. And the pokey, winded narrative that unfolds towards taht end drains the picture of any urgency or drama it might have generated.

Lisa Jacqueline Starrett plays Irving, a solitary hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail who is wary of the seemingly helpful, friendly and trail-wise stranger Ford (James Tang) who stumbles into her.

He asks to tag along, and seemingly changes directions to do so. He talks a lot, while Irving’s prone to pondering and drifting into flashbacks. But hey, he’s got lots of backpacking toys and knowhow.

It’s “off season,” he tells her. But she’s still wearing shorts and taking dips in the local lakes. When something grabs and seems to bite her as it drags her down, they’ve got themselves a crisis.

Whatever caused the injury, they’re “two days” away from the nearest car. She dropped her phone in a creek. His GPS has quit. And paramedic or not, their chances aren’t great of getting out before she bleeds out or gets hopelessly infected.

The flashbacks introduce us to a violent marriage, a little girl and a car accident. And if the visuals aren’t clear enough (they are, of course), Irving will explain them to Ford and to us.

Ford’s a seemingly determined trail savior, but Irving — whom we’ve seen contemplate jumping off a cliff — seems to want to let him off the hook.

“You just can’t save EVERYone,” she tells him.

“But you have to try,” is his motto.

For a thriller reaching for a hint of mystery, “To Die Alone” just drifts along, with every Irving whim or tantrum interrupting their wilderness escape. The script doesn’t do a good job of preserving Ford’s potential menace. His growing panic arrives all at once, not gradually.

The lack of urgency lowers the stakes, and the “explanations” are less interesting than the mystery they purport to “solve.”

The performances never rise above adequate into compelling territory.

But at least the setting is a dazzler. No wonder nobody involved — characters or crew — was in a hurry to finish and leave.

Rating: 16+, violence, alcohol abuse, profanity

Cast: Lisa Jacqueline Starrett and James Tang.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Austin Smagalski. A One Tree Entertainment release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:26