Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Starring: Harriet Slater, Arsema Thomas, Tom Brittney, Virginia Gardner, Grace Caroline Currey
Director Scott Mann's 2022 movie Fall took the survival thriller to new heights with its dizzying scenario of two young daredevils (played by Virginia Gardner and Grace Caroline Currey) stuck 2,000 feet in the air atop a gigantic TV tower. It was a simple but very well executed piece of filmmaking that preyed on our fear of heights, and while the movie was sadly underseen on the big screen where its vertiginous thrills were most effective, it found an audience on streaming. And so we get Fall 2 (released in the US as Fall 2: Deadpoint), the first of two sequels.
You might have expected this sequel to introduce an unconnected storyline, but Mann, returning as screenwriter with co-writer Jonathan Frank, has tied Fall 2 into its predecessor. We're introduced to Jax (Sophie Turner lookalike Harriet Slater), the sister of Gardner's Shiloh, who didn't make it out of the first movie. While struggling to get over the loss of her sis, Jax is approached by Luce (Arsema Thomas), a friend of Shiloh who suggests that she and Jax team up to pay respect to the late adventurer by taking on the next challenge Shiloh had lined up if she had made it off the tower.
That challenge is to walk the narrow planks attached to the side of Thailand's Mount Kwan. In a prologue we see just how dangerous this is as a pair of men who appear to be up to no good perish when an avalanche destroys part of the plank. After some initial hesitation, Jax agrees and the girls pay a hunky underground guide, John (Tom Brittney), to lead them up the deadly cliff face. When another avalanche destroys much of the plank, the girls find themselves stuck in a seemingly impossible situation.
Mann has passed the megaphone to the filmmaking duo of Michael and Peter Spierig for this sequel, but any fears that they might not be able to replicate the sort of thrills Mann fashioned so skilfully are soon put to bed. Along with editors Tommy Aagard and Scott Gray, the Spierigs construct sequences that will have you extracting your nails from your armrest as the end credits roll. As with the first movie, the scale of the scenario is established in foreboding manner as we're treated to close-ups of loose screws and rickety walkways, the audience's hearts slowly making their way to their mouths as the protagonists ascend the imposing cliff. The Spierigs use a clever combination of low and high angles and dizzying POV shots to constantly remind us just how far above the ground we are. The greenscreen backdrop isn't quite as convincing as that of the original, but the editing is so effective that the artifice doesn't matter. There are a couple of sequences in Fall 2 that are the equal of its predecessor, and anyone with a dodgy ticker should be warned that one or two moments might send you into cardiac arrest.
Fall 2 isn't as relentlessly tense as the first movie though. I praised Mann's film for eschewing the sort of flashbacks that are so often used to pad out the run time of survival thrillers. Unfortunately we get exactly that here, with Jax daydreaming about the adventures she shared with her late sister. These moments disrupt the tension and play like a clunky way to tie the two movies together and allow Gardner to make a return.
This sequel also suffers from a final act that deviates from its established woman vs structure formula to add a new peril, straying into the territory of 1993's Cliffhanger (whose own upcoming sequel was surely prompted by Fall's success). After sucking us into a believable scenario, things get a little silly as characters make decisions that are difficult to accept. But even in this diversion to an unnecessary and unconvincing side-plot, there are giddy thrills to be had. The ending sets up a third instalment, and despite Fall 2's flaws, I'm ready to have my nerves wracked a third time.
Fall 2 is in UK/ROI cinemas from September 9th.
