Have you ever had a day just go wrong in every way possible? In June 2009, Chloe was having one of those days, and it was killing her. Directing this 90 minute adventure/horror is Abel Ferry.
Not having the fun they thought they would are: Fanny Valette as Chloe, Johan Libereau as Loic, Raphael Lenglet as Guillaume, Nicolas Giraud as Fred, Maud Wyler as Karine and Justin Blanckaert as Anton.
Six friends on vacation decide to hit a hiking and rock climbing trail high up in the mountains. Unfortunately, the trail has been closed for repairs. Fred, who's a more experienced climber, decides
to take the group on what he thought would be a fun and easy course past the closed section. After crossing a rope bridge that collapses, they find themselves trapped with no easy way back down the mountain. They thought being stuck on the mountain was the worst that could happen today. Well, they were wrong, and if they don't watch out... they could be dead wrong!
I passed on watching this title a few times before finally deciding to sit down and give this French horror a shot. The description just wasn't catching my interest, but sometimes you have take a chance and sometimes it pays off and you find hidden gems. This... was not a hidden gem. Instead, this is one of those few films where I wish I did spoiler reviews. That way I could actually go into some of the things that truly bothered me without giving things away for the people that still want to see this one. So I'll just leave you with the question I found myself having during the last half of the flick... why?
Writers Johanne Bernard and Louis-Paul Desanges threw out there for the horror fans something that has been done a bunch of times before. What makes this slasher flick, that was originally titled Vertige, any different or lets it stand out on it's own? Nothing really. Just a good old fashion slasher flick that has a reason for people to get together and hangout, along with an evil (that was weakly explained) chasing them down to hand out their demise. I will give that Bernard and Desanges threw in some character development, so that was nice. However, they also threw in a back story trauma for one of the characters that made no sense whatsoever and didn't fit into the story very well.
The playthrough starts off at a normal pace, then when things kick off it hits the run for your life pace. However, even when the scary parts hit, it's pretty quick, then back to running for their lives. One of the things I did like about this one was that they tried to go with a bit of mystery, you don't know what or who is going after the group right away. Unfortunately, once I did find out what the deal was I was pretty disappointed.
Another thing I thought was good was the special effects. Cyril Hipaux did a really good job with the special effects make-up and Victor Barrere also did some nice work with the visual effects. Also the cinematography was pretty good, I liked how Nicolas Massart tried to make you feel like you were there with some of the angles used.
The cast was ok, and made dieing... look painful and scary. Other than that, there really wasn't much of a script for them to work with.
Overall, I've found a bunch of other slasher flicks that I would rather spend my time and energy on. If you're still curious about this one, might I recommend instead Wrong Turn (2003). You'll still get the same victim count, a little bit more of a mess left behind and a better excuse for why the flick exists.
It's rated UR (unrated) but has language, violence and nudity.
2 stars