If you, too, are afraid of heights, you’re likely to experience “Fall” as a straightforward horror movie instead of a thriller. The director Scott Mann has certainly packed this latest venture with enough jump scares and bloodshed to blur genre lines. As a result, “Fall” occasionally feels overrun with gimmicks and gotchas, but it also offers one hell of an adrenaline rush.
The film opens on a tragedy. Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and her husband, Dan (Mason Gooding), are scaling a cliff face with their friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner), when an accident sends Dan plummeting to his death. Just shy of a year later, Hunter drags Becky back into the climbing game by promising her an easy half-day jaunt up a 2,000-foot TV tower. The two have been estranged; Hunter spent the last year becoming an influencer while Becky binge drank and contemplated suicide. But when they end up stranded on a small platform at the top of the tower, reconciliation takes a back seat to survival.
“Fall” loses its grip in the final act, as tension gives way to ludicrous horrors. Still, its twists are so bizarre that they’re kind of fun, and the actors sell them hard.
Most of all, this is an impressive feat of cinema. The bulk of the film was shot on a 60-foot platform on top of a mountain, to keep things looking realistic. Of course, that only makes “Fall” all the more harrowing. As Becky and Hunter’s brushes with death compounded, I kept flattening myself into my seat like a literal scaredy cat. Be glad it’s not playing in IMAX.
Fall
Rated PG-13 for Ahhhhh!!! Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. In theaters.