'Fall 2: Deadpoint' Review: Plenty Of Height, But Not Enough Thrills

As someone with an immense fear of heights, I avoided Fall , Scott Mann's ( Heist ) survival movie set at dizzying heights, at all costs. A story about two women trapped at the top of a 2,000-foot radio tower? No, it definitely wasn't on my to-watch list. However, the movie's streaming popularity and passionate fan base intrigued me enough to check out Fall 2: Deadpoint . Hearing about audience members passing out during the first movie didn't exactly give me much hope of surviving the sequel. However, approximately 98 minutes after taking a seat, I emerged with shaky knees, but also with the feeling that this film might not be quite the high flyer its predecessor was. It's definitely not because of a lack of heights, though, as the Spierigs brothers quickly takes us into the air and onto a plank walkway extending around a Thai mountain. Jax Hunter (Harriet Slater) and Luce (Arsema Thomas), her sister Shiloh's best friend, decide to honour Shiloh's (Virginia Gardner) wish by taking on the daring (and slightly illegal) climb. The extremely hesitant Jax has a gut feeling that this trip might be unforgettable, but sadly not in a good way. She should have trusted that feeling, because when Jon (Tom Brittney) guides the pair on their climb and a rockslide destroys the majority of the planks, the two women find themselves trapped without their guide and with only a few supplies at hand. For the rest of the movie, you feel as though you're scaling the mountain alongside them, navigating narrow passes, braving rickety wooden planks and having to pull off the unthinkable to find a way back down. While a daredevil movie like this can absolutely work, Fall 2: Deadpoint sadly doesn't fully pull off what it's trying to do. That's mainly because you can't stop thinking, 'Why would you want to climb that mountain after what happened in the past?' You would think that after what Jax has witnessed before, she would want to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground and shy away from a risky high-altitude adventure. Even more so when she and Luce discover it's not the right season for one of their treks. Arsema Thomas as Luce in 'Fall 2: Deadpoint' courtesy of Lionsgate The wind, rain and darkness will make the trip even more perilous, but they don't seem to care about that. All it takes is Luce's feisty spirit to convince Jax that she should do this climb for her sister, and off they go. Yes, there's a beautiful location (Thailand is truly a delight to watch on the big screen) and a slightly different cast than in the first movie, but there are still plenty of head-scratching decisions with consequences that are painfully easy to predict. That makes it hard to sympathise with the leads — despite the writers pulling on the audience's heartstrings with an emotional story of grief, family, and illness, while also throwing in some supposedly unexpected side stories — the acting trio give it their best shot at making it all convincing. Brittney might not have a lot to work with, as his character is, like everyone in this movie, thinly drawn and full of clichés, but whenever he's on screen, he delivers the right balance of charm, wit and guidance, alongside the darkness lurking behind that slightly hunky (Luce's words, not ours) appearance. Kudos to The Westies actor for facing his real-life fear of heights to portray this unnerving character. For the majority of this survival scenario, we watch Jax and Luce desperately try to make their way back. The slightly dull dialogue might mainly consist of variations on 'Don't let go,' but Slater ( Outlander: Blood of My Blood ) and Thomas ( Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story ) still convincingly convey the intense physical fear and panic the movie calls for. That fear doesn't always come to life in its full glory, however. Yes, you can see it in the leads' eyes, but sometimes you almost forget the immense heights the women find themselves at. The camera mainly stays close to the characters, and while that creates a claustrophobic and tense feeling at times, it's only when you see the vast space beneath and around them that your nerves finally reach the levels a movie like this should evoke. It would have been great to get more of those 'don't look down' moments, where the characters inevitably look down, and Andrew Strahorn's ( Queen of the Ring ) cinematography truly heightens that frightening sense. One particularly nerve-racking moment shows Luce carefully making her way along the exposed metal framework, with the wooden planks that once covered it nowhere to be found. During that scene, you want to look away while also finding yourself glued to the screen, and that's exactly the kind of moment this movie could have benefited from more often. While the feature ends on a high (pun intended), there aren't enough of those armrest-grabbing scenes to turn this feature into the thrill ride the directors duo clearly set out to make. While the actors certainly try to make this movie reach the same heights as Fall , the one-dimensional characters and limited number of genuinely thrilling scenes keep them from succeeding. There's still enough vertigo-inducing spectacle and committed performances to make the climb worthwhile, but if there are already ideas for a third film in the series, let's hope they lean much more towards what made the first feature work than what we get in this one. Fall 2: Deadpoint is out now courtesy of Lionsgate