The Gorge was a straight-to-Apple TV movie that I heard a few good things about that piqued my interest, namely, the promise that there was some Lovecraftian horror lurking within the titular chasm. After a somewhat frustrating series of popup windows and alerts to sign up for a free trial of the streaming service for the sake of watching the movie, things got off to a good start. I had fun and enjoyed the story being told for the first hour. Then a few cardinal sins of horror were committed and the experience went from a recommendable film to merely an “okay” experience with some significant caveats.

Pros

• Characters are compelling enough to carry the story

• Some action scenes are good when you can see what’s going on

• Some interesting sets and background designs

• Allusions to horror in the opening half are good and establish tension

Cons

• Several action scenes are too dark to see what’s going on

• Most creature designs are not interesting

• CGI effects, green screen effects, and some creatures do not look good

• Way too much is explained; some of which is cliche and does not make sense

• Borderline girl-boss moments

• If you ask too many questions about how the gorge is guarded, it does not make sense

• Seems like a lot of cookie-cutter ideas from many other movies forced into a bloated and uneven script

• Uninteresting ending

Plot & Thoughts

Levi (Miles Teller) is an ex-marine and extremely skilled sniper with an impressive record and is thus recruited to take on a very special, secret mission by a mysterious woman named Bartholemew (Sigourney Weaver). The mission is so secret that he is drugged on his way to his destination so he doesn’t know where it is when he jumps off the plane and skydives down to the facility. What is his job? To guard and protect the west side of the gorge from whatever lurks within it. There are mines, mounted auto-guns, a watch tower, and other defenses at his disposal to ensure that anything trying to escape the abyss is eliminated. On the east side of the ravine are similar defenses, which are to be maintained by another person Levi is not supposed to communicate with in any way—even though the first action establishes that it would be much better to have the two communicate to protect the gorge by how they aim their guns at the threats. Of course, he eventually does via telescope and whiteboard messages and learns that her name is Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) and that she is a talented sniper as well. As the two of them continue to guard the gorge and perform maintenance on the facility, they come to bond with each other in their isolation, and a budding relationship forms between them. Of course, at some point, and for one reason or another, the two of them eventually have to go into the gorge, right?

Despite the promise of some Lovecraftian horrors being my motivating reason to watch The Gorge, I think this movie’s strength is in the first half with its focus on the relationship forming between Drasa and Levi instead of the horrors within the chasm. There’s a certain amount of charm to how everything is presented and how their two different personalities allow them to connect. They’re also able to connect through their experience as professional killers without the dialogue feeling too heavy-handed or depressing in its presentation while still being somewhat believable. If the only other person within 100 miles is attractive and a professional killer like you, wouldn’t you like to connect with them in some way? The situation that Levi and Drasa are in may be serious and occasionally dangerous, but The Gorge presents their interactions and blossoming relationship in a way that is almost like a romantic comedy, and it tends to work pretty well with the chemistry between the two actors.

The weaknesses of the film, however, are its action and horror. I’m not saying it’s all bad, but it does not quite hit the mark. The start of the movie is perfectly fine with how the gorge and its creatures are established. The setup helps make the pacing of the first half move relatively quickly. When Levi first reaches his destination, he’s given a quick rundown by the guard he is replacing named JD (Sope Drisu). How JD describes the job and what to expect are done well and with enough vagueness to create an ominous atmosphere. Within a few days of staying at the gorge, Levi and Drasa have to fight off an attack from the creatures below at night. The sweeping lights and the darkness work for this particular action scene by providing mere glimpses of the creatures before they’re gunned down. It’s a great action scene that doesn’t diminish the horror or mystery and thankfully does not show enough of the creatures, which end up looking pretty bland. However, there are numerous scenes later on where the lighting is so poor I struggled to even see what was happening—some of it looked like it involved unbelievable girl-bossing by a woman who weighs less than 100 pounds, so maybe I was spared a cringefest.

The main problem The Gorge faces is its inability to keep things completely vague or obscure. I may be complaining that I couldn’t see some of the action scenes, but I would have preferred some of that same restraint had been applied to the plot. I won’t get into all the details, but simply way too much about the gorge, why they’re guarding it, what the creatures are, and who hired them is explained and shown. The mystery is lost and so is a fair amount of the creepiness as a result. As most horror fans understand, the more you know about the horror taking place in a story, the less scary it becomes. When Lovecraftian horrors or ideas are promised, I expect the tenets of his storytelling techniques to be included—not the racist ones. It pains me to say it, but even Annihilation—a movie that bored me so much that I turned it off—showed a level of restraint when it came to explaining what was happening and allowed the audience to fill in the gaps with their own ideas. Still, I like The Gorge way more despite its many faults.

One particular explanation from The Gorge I am compelled to spoil because of how stupid and cliche it is. If you don’t wish to know, I’d suggest that you stop reading immediately but I have to bring up some of the details.

The gorge is a dangerous place that holds things that could endanger the entire planet but it is not being wiped out with a tactical missile or nuclear strike. Instead, it is being maintained and guarded with immense secrecy that goes beyond the clearance of the highest levels of Eastern and Western governments. Why? To study the effects of the gorge on the flora and fauna within it to then potentially use to alter human DNA and create super soldiers.

The super-soldier idea is an extremely worn-out trope at this point when it comes to science-fiction plots. It just needs to be thrown out if you are trying to create malicious intent for your antagonists if your universe also has advanced technology that does a better job of killing with drones and AI. Genetically modified human soldiers work as an idea in stories that take place before 2010, or in universes in which the technology lacks high-level automation, like Warhammer 40,000 or Dune. It doesn’t really make sense if humans can simply be replaced on the battlefield by flying drones with miniguns attached to them—which are featured in The Gorge at some point. This was a sticking point for me with Alien: Romulus as well with the justification for studying the xenomorph being that the evil company wanted to create more “environmentally resistant” humans to be able to work and mine on tougher planets when the ability to create androids in that universe already exists. All it takes is a simple assessment to recognize that the risks and their impending costs outweigh the benefits that could be yielded from the continued research of such dangerous creatures in worlds that already have enough technology to mitigate human involvement.

TL;DR

The Gorge starts relatively strong with a fair amount of promise for an interesting science-fiction horror movie with some mystery. The first half has a lot of suspense and romantic charm that moves everything along at a brisk and satisfying pace. Watching the two main characters interact during this portion of the movie is entertaining and the mystery of the gorge adds an ominous shroud over their romance. Unfortunately, when the action picks up, the mystery dissipates as too much about the gorge and its horrors is revealed. It’s still a somewhat fun watch, but a little more restraint in the storytelling could have gone a long way to make The Gorge much better than it is.