TUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
fall 2 (12A)
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Screenplay: Jonathan Frank, Scott Mann
Starring: Harriet Slater, Arsema Thomas, Tom Brittney
Running time: 98 minutes
Cinema
Review: David Stephens
Whereas it used to be VHS rental and DVD sales that gave a second life to underachieving horror and thriller films, these days it is, of course, the streaming channels that can resurrect underappreciated would-be franchises. Case in point here is 2022’s Fall. A perfectly solid and enjoyably tense film, it told the story of two female BFFs who were into thrill-climbing and became stuck at the top of a 2,000 ft TV tower in the middle of the Mojave Desert, where some unlikely events and some decently laid plot twists exacerbated the situation. Made for only $3m, it made back $21m, but more importantly, became a sleeper hit on Netflix. This led to an announcement in October 2023, revealing that two sequels were in development and that the movies would enter production consecutively, effectively confirming Fall as a franchise (the “FCU”?). So here is Fall 2, which is without the “Deadpoint” subtitle in the UK, basically because it is extremely unnecessary; us Brits dislike needless additions to opening titles, and nobody (unless they’re a climber) knows what it means. Fun fact: It is (apparently) the ‘controlled dynamic move where you grab hold of something at the highest point of your swing, just as your body's momentum momentarily pauses before gravity pulls you back down’. So now you know. It’s directed by Peter and Michael Spierig (Predestination, Jigsaw, etc.) from a screenplay by Scott Mann (who helmed the original). Whilst there was a lot of buzz originally, most of that seems to have ahem fallen a little nearer the release, and it has had some very mixed reviews. Now showing in pretty much all global territories, is it a case of ‘reach for the sky’ or ‘dashed on the rocks’?
After the events of Fall, Shiloh Hunter (Virginia Gardner) has become a (spoiler alert!!) posthumous hero on social media platforms. With the hashtag ‘#FallGirl’, footage recovered from the accident is revered, and her past posts are analysed, with fans becoming addicted to speaking about her legacy and philosophy on life. Note: This is BY FAR the most realistic part of the plot and entirely believable. All of this has greatly affected Shiloh’s introverted sister (Harriet Slater as Jax Hunter), who is tormented by their last interaction and feelings of grief. Selling Shiloh’s old truck puts her in touch with Luce (Arsema Thomas), who was a good friend of her sibling. They bond over memories, and as Luce explores some of the belongings in the truck, she finds a ‘bucket list’ which documents all of Shiloh’s intended climbing locations. Apparently, the next one was due to be a cliffside ‘plank walk’ on Mount Kwan in Thailand. Inspired by this, she pressures Jax to join her on a trip and complete the challenge in memory of her departed sister. After a little deep thinking (and the obligatory flashback), Jax agrees to join her. Sometime later, they arrive at the location and use some code words in Shiloh’s journal to secure a guide (Tom Brittney as Jon Platt). However, it seems like bad luck runs in the Hunter family, and it’s not long before history repeats itself and the threesome are left in a familiar (and deadly) situation.
So, who’s reading this and is genuinely scared of heights? Come on, be honest. Well, if looking down on great depths gives you the jitters, you’ll probably need to add an extra point to this review rating, and you’ll be more acutely affected by the occasional burst of vertigo. And whilst it’s not explicitly a horror film as such, any project that focuses so much on a common phobia has to be acknowledged for its genre leanings. Having said that, despite some good moments and some promising set-ups, this is one of those sequels that (despite the increased budget) “falls” considerably short of the mark when compared with its predecessor. So why is that? After all, it seems to be on the right track. It’s a good idea to have Shiloh’s sister take the baton, especially as she’s carved from different stuff to her gung-ho sibling, and it avoids the chestnut of having a character going through the same-shit-twice. Also, the move to a more exotic (and higher) location makes for an interesting shift in perspective, whilst still exploiting the same sense of paranoia. Mount Kwan is a fictional location in the film, depicted as a gargantuan, tooth-like rock embedded deep in a Thai jungle near the country's borders. However, a lot of the photography genuinely takes place in that country (in a rock quarry, though), and it is closely based on the real-life why-the-Hell-would-you-do-that Plank Walk on Mount Hua (Huashan) in China. So, it’s all possible(ish). But for several reasons, it just doesn’t hit the same way.
First of all, we’ll cover the good stuff, and there’s certainly some of that. Whilst SFX is used to create Kwan and its surrounding vistas, apart from the very occasional shonky shot, it is certainly visually impressive. The sunrise after the girl’s first night on Devil’s Elbow is especially striking. Filming on elevated sets (14m as opposed to over 3,000 feet as in the plot) helps maintain some of the tension, and downward shots that show simulated depths of thousands of feet are also likely to make a lot of people feel genuinely queasy, which is the whole point. Even the slightly cheating aspects of nighttime darkness, fog, and heavy rainfall maintain the atmosphere of hostile terrain and keep the tension tight. There’s also a slight meta quality that creeps into some of the interactions that is pleasing to hear, such as “Why are we doing this? We could be scuba diving… I dunno… Sharks?” It also helps that there are at least two nerve-shredding sequences that are as intense as those in the first film, with characters having to rely on twitchy metal bars embedded in sheer rockface to gain access to a way out. Those are the (dead)points where you get your money’s worth.
Whilst not as relatable and played slightly flatly in comparison to the chemistry between Shiloh and Becky in the first film, at least Slater and Thomas have the physicality and gumption to play the lead roles well. Both of them believably push themselves (physically and emotionally) to make them easy to root for and for the audience to wish them to survive the perils in the peaks. Well, mostly. There are a couple of caveats to that. First off, with Slater/Jax (who looks disarmingly like a young Geri Halliwell throughout the film… I really should get out more…) there is an admittedly sudden and unrealistic transition. Initially, she’s a reticent and almost submissive character who allows herself to be persuaded to do things she’s not comfortable with, which is functionally the exact opposite of her sister. Then, immediately after a certain event, she suddenly becomes Lara Croft incarnate, even stripping down to a trademark off-white tank top and becoming a total badass. That’s not to say that this isn’t warranted or an intentional character arc… but it happens so quickly that it’s totally unrealistic. And then there’s the number of times that the girls are warned off taking the plank walk for genuinely worrying reasons. Earthquakes (no, really!), rockfalls, violent cops, rusty metal, missing supports, rotting wood, drug runners, off-season weather, dodgy locals, dodgier guides, fenced-off areas, and border patrols. None of this, we repeat, none of this, stops them in their tracks. Hell, the girls in Fall only had to drive to the middle of nowhere and ignore a couple of illegible warning signs before they could climb! This inevitably erodes your empathy for them a bit before the shit hits the rockfall.
It also doesn’t help that nearly all of those aforementioned issues occur or combine to create the perfect storm to drop our leads into a scenario that mirrors that of the first film. That pushes credibility a touch too far, even for a film like this. Also, whereas Fall created further innovative tension around sub-threats such as heatstroke, vultures, dehydration, and mental perception (THAT twist). This is not the case here. Danger comes initially from the height and reaching a source of communication safely, and that’s about it for the main part. They even have access to oxygen and (presumably, although it’s never mentioned…along with toiletry needs) water over the course of the film. Admittedly, the situation does change surprisingly at one point, but it has the effect of breaking the tension and feeling unearned. The last act can’t be referred to without spoilers, but suffice to say that it is surprisingly brutal and mean-spirited in one respect (which is good). However, it also feels a little ‘off’ with what has gone on before in tone and objective (which is bad). It’s like they tried to find a way to emulate the ‘twist’ of the first film by shoehorning in a daft confrontation that continues to play off a fear of heights. This culminates in a jump-cut where a character goes from a life-threatening situation to complete safety, with no explanation of how they extracted themselves from it. Boo!
One final thumb-nose must go to the ludicrous drawn-out ‘slo-mo’ scene at a certain point, which is supposed to be nail-biting and triumphant, but is so badly framed and timed that it just made our audience snigger and groan. Not a good sign. It’s something of a shame, because (as the saying goes) ‘all of the right notes were there, but not necessarily in the right order’. The script (and plot) is just a little too perfunctory and scrappy. The lead actors are not really given enough emotional beats to work with, and the ones that are there feel forced. That’s not to say that it’s a pointless exercise. The 1hr and 38mins flies by, and it’s very tightly edited, with all the budget on display on the screen. As previously mentioned, the emphasis on death-by-height is captured very well in a visual sense, and a couple of sequences are top-notch in the way they are performed (apart from that slo-mo bit). If you enjoyed the first film and get a frisson from natural-born thrillers like this, then you will probably like the experience given here. But you may be disappointed that it doesn’t (in a metaphorical sense at least) reach the heights of Fall. Being as Fall 3 is (allegedly) already deep into filming, the tease given here (don’t worry, it’s not post-credit) is genuinely intriguing and could well be an improvement on what has been depicted in this sequel. Fall 2 is down, but there’s still some fun to be had.
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