Released to a flurry in 2022, the pleasingly silly Fall has found a devoted following in the streaming afterlife. A high-concept yarn featuring two women stranded at the death-defying summit of a rusty, soon-to-be-demolished TV tower, the survivalist horror was powered along by vertiginous views from 625m up and compellingly corny twists.
It’s impossible not to think of Weekend at Bernie’s II – an over-reaching 1980s comedy sequel that required voodoo resurrection and congo lines as plot points – while watching the hurried opening section of Fall 2: Deadpoint. Wait: so the sidekick in the last film had an estranged sister? And they argued right before her death?
Enter Jax Hunter (Harriet Slater), weedy younger sister to Fall’s thrillseeker Shiloh, who is persuaded by a mysterious friend (Arsema Thomas) to take on Mount Hua’s plank walk in a stomach-churning traverse along sheer cliffs, across narrow wooden boards suspended roughly 2,000m above the valleys below.
Except, somehow, the entire plank walk has been relocated to the US ally Thailand. And then there’s rain. And then there’s a rockslide. And then there’s a revelation.
IP reigns, regardless of how preposterous any spin-off might be. But this story, as cooked up by Scott Mann (who directed the original Fall) and Jonathan Frank, is thin gruel. Set your watch by the beats: there’s no signal; oh, wait, there’s one bar. A loosey-goosey attempt to replicate the soapy plot twists of the first instalment results only in a firm shrug of the viewer’s shoulders.
Peter and Michael Spierig, directors of Predestination and Jigsaw, make the most of the urge to not look down. (But – oh, no – you just did.) Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas work hard to enliven pastily written characters with insane motivations. Why are they going up this crazy, unsurvivable mountain? No idea.
The dire penalties for drug trafficking in Thailand are flagged early, so we’re primed for some scattershot, similarly themed development.
Higher does not necessarily mean better. The view from the top, aided by Mann’s AI-enhanced SFX company, remains appropriately sickening. It’s enough to paper over the movie’s crazy canyons and vast gaps in logic. But it’s nothing like the real thing.
In cinemas from Wednesday, September 11th