Fall 2: Deadpoint
I saw the original Fall movie when it came out in 2022 in a theater with maybe five other people, so I was surprised to learn there was now a sequel — with a third film in the works. Turns out, grossing just $21 million worldwide is a big success when your movie cost a mere $3 million to make.
To cut to the chase here, Fall 2: Deadpoint (or just Fall: Deadpoint, as the title appears in the opening credits) does a great job of reproducing the nail-biting vertigo of the original. While I don’t consider myself scared of heights, depictions of humans at risk of plummeting hundreds or thousands of feet to their death affect me the way I imagine other people experience horror movies or roller coasters. I squirm in my seat and feel that nervous, sinking sensation in my guts (or lower, actually). Since movies rarely have that kind of visceral impact on me, I enjoyed being creeped out by Fall for 90 minutes or so while two none-too-bright young women dealt with being trapped atop a 2,000-foot-high decommissioned radio tower in the middle of nowhere.
Jax (Harriet Slater), the older sister of one of those women, is the protagonist in Fall 2, clearly not having learned from her sister’s experience. For some inexplicable reason, she agrees to go hike an abandoned “plank walk” along the sheer cliff face of a 4,000-foot mountain in Thailand. (The movie’s setting is inspired by a real plank walk on Mount Hua in China.) Her companions are a rogue guide named John (Tom Brittney) and another young woman Jax has recently become friends with, named Luce (Arsema Thomas). When heavy rains cause an avalanche (or two), the women are trapped on a small section of the plank walk. As in the first movie, no one knows where they are, mobile phones don’t work, they have no food and not much water, and there appears to be no way down.
Also as in first movie, the screenplay (again by Fall director Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank) saves some plot twists for the second half — this time even wilder.
But plausibility is not the appeal of these movies. They’re just about reproducing the empathic sense of fear and anxiety created by depictions of the extreme risks of long, deadly falls. And at that, Fall 2, directed by The Spierig Brothers (Jigsaw, Winchester), is quite efficient. Indeed, I’d say that ridiculousness is part of the point. You’ve got to enjoy the absurdity of the situations and the stunts to relate to the spirit of the film. And if that’s the case, Fall 2 is, um, dead on, since its third act revelations will have your eyes rolling.
In case the plank walk peril isn’t enough for you, the filmmakers also throw in some additional thrills in the form of flashbacks, as Jax recalls previous height-based escapades with her sister, Shiloh (Virginia Gardner). Becky (Grace Caroline Currey), Shiloh’s climbing partner from the first film, is also back for a cameo, in a tag scene setting up Fall 3. Get those crampons ready!
Grade: B. Rated PG-13. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10 and Regal Biltmore Grande.
(Photo: Lionsgate)
