Before properly assessing and possibly buying a ticket to see Fall 2: Deadpoint, one could benefit from answering a very important question: Was the original Fall a good film?
The answer is more complicated than it may seem, since it’s simultaneously a “hell, no” and a “well, actually, it kinda was.”
Scott Mann’s 2022 survival thriller about two friends stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot rusty tower had a low budget and a paper-thin script that ventured into silliness on many occasions. At the same time, it was a highly effective spectacle that managed to extrapolate the fear of heights that people with acrophobia (such as the author of this text) suffer from to the viewers who usually don’t.
So, while the initial premise was flimsy (who would want to climb that thing after already experiencing one tragedy in similar circumstances?), the basis for the thrills and frights was as real as they get. Which puts a different question in play when it comes to the second film, written by the same duo (Mann and Jonathan Frank), but directed by the Spierig Brothers: Is it a good sequel to something that was so simple yet so efficient?
The answer is less complicated in this case and basically comes down to: Yes, even though some major suspension of disbelief will be required, starting once again with the initial setup. At this point, this shit happened to these people three times! While the film doesn’t make the original’s protagonist Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) climb another tall, phallic structure (holding out for an already planned and set-up third installment), it focuses on Jax (Harriet Slater), the sister of Grace’s less fortunate friend, Shiloh (Virginia Gardner), who died in the first film.
Jax is grieving, so when she is approached by Shiloh’s friend, Luce (Arsema Thomas), who suggests they should fulfill her sister’s bucket list of daredevil adventures, Jax naturally tells her that it's a terrible idea and to please seek psychological help for even entertaining it. Just kidding. The plot needs to be plotting, so Jax agrees to go with Luce to Thailand and take a plank walk on the side of a mountain, aptly called the Devil’s Elbow. There, they recruit John (Tom Brittney), a guy they meet in a bar who agrees to be their guide.
It takes a bit longer than in the first movie to get there, but about 40 minutes in, things expectedly go very wrong, leaving the two women stranded on a wobbly piece of wood at a height of 4,000 feet. From here on out, Fall 2 does a mostly admirable job of balancing the original's greatest hits (the backpack lying not far away that needs to be grabbed, trying to get the attention of someone on the ground using creative resources) and some new repertoire, which proves to be entertaining for the most part.
The film is predictably at its strongest when it plays around with various ways to showcase the height the characters must operate on, and at its weakest (just as its predecessor was) when it tries to add depth or interpersonal conflict. The turn that the movie takes at one point towards the end might result in some seriously hardcore eye-rolling that would be seen and heard from any distance, no laser pointer needed. Still, none of it takes away from the experience of being put in a POV of someone hanging by a thread (sometimes literally) over an abyss.
If you’re here for complex, smart storytelling, you are probably in the wrong theater hall. Fall 2 can be enjoyed infinitely better when one stops trying to make sense of everything that, in fact, refuses to make it, and takes pleasure in the ride itself.
There is also a sort of comforting predictability to be enjoyed here. The industry will continue to squeeze every ounce of profit by making sequels to sleeper hits that don’t necessarily require it. People will continue to make bad choices both off and on screen. And nothing will ever be as scary as a brief shot of a tiny screw coming undone underneath a rusty bridge just as a character steps on it.
The film is now playing only in movie theaters, via Lionsgate. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.