Fall is in the same vein of 47 Meters Down and it’s 107 minutes of nerve-inducing anxiety from the time the camera rolls until the film ends.
Imagine 47 Meters Down except we’re no longer under the water. Instead, the two leads are on top of an abandoned 2,000-ft B67 TV Tower in the California desert without any cell reception. The irony is that they did this to look fear in the face and now they’re waiting to be rescued. At some point, you stop waiting and take matters into your own hands. Help is going to come at some point, right? Maybe, maybe not. As viewers, we’re screaming at the screen. Like I said, this film is nerve-inducing anxiety for all of its run time. To say that finishing the film is a relief would not be an understatement. I’m sitting here, typing my review, and wondering how I’m going to fall asleep tonight, if at all.
Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) are the type of thrill-seekers who push it to the limits. Climbing the tower was Hunter’s idea, mainly so that Becky could get over the death of her husband, Dan (Mason Gooding), one year earlier. Becky is hesitant every step of the way and Hunter keeps pushing her even further. As soon as they had their first mishap with the ladder, they should have headed back to the ground. Instead, they’re stuck at the top of a radio tower with the ladder all over the ground. That’s what happens for not thinking it through! Did they stop for a moment to check into why the radio tower was abandoned? Anything that can go wrong…will go wrong. Supplies are dwindling and they can only survive for so long without water.
The filmmakers considered utilizing their own version of The Volume. However, the film’s budget was a factor in preventing them from doing so. Instead, they went with building the upper 60-foot portion of the tower on a mountain and then getting creative with the angles while filming. Trust me when I say that they really sell it because it truly felt like they were 2,000 feet up in the air. It speaks to how much visual effects work is in the film, too. Throw in removing wires from the shots and the mountain itself, and there’s at least 1,000 VFX shots in the film. The actors do have stunt doubles but there’s stunt work here that they do themselves–where someone like me would be freaking out–such as the one-handed selfies. There are other filmmaking tricks at where but I’m not about to ruin all the fun.
This is one of those films that I wish they screened for press on the big screen. It’s certainly the type of film that one should take in on an IMAX-size screen. Instead, I took it in on my 43″ TV twice (to be fair, the first viewing featured distractions so I owed it a second viewing). You need to see Fall on the biggest screen possible in order to do it the proper justice. If you are prone to vertigo or have a fear of heights, maybe hold off on viewing for now.
Fall is an edge-of-your-seat, nerve-inducing thriller. Winter is coming sooner than later.
DIRECTOR: Scott Mann
SCREENWRITERS: Jonathan Frank & Scott Mann
CAST: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Lionsgate will release Fall in theaters on August 12, 2022. Grade: 3.5/5
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