The Gorge (dir. Scott Derrickson)

by Jack Martin | Feb 15, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 127 mins

UK Distributor: Apple TV+

UK Release Date: 14 February 2025

WHO’S IN THE GORGE?

Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, William Houston

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Scott Derrickson (director, producer), Zach Dean (writer, producer), C. Robert Cargill, Sherryl Clark, David Ellison, Dan Goldberg, Gregory Goodman, Don Granger and Adam Kolbrenner (producers), Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (composers), Dan Laustsen (cinematographer), Frédéric Thoraval (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Two government operatives (Teller and Taylor-Joy) are tasked with guarding both sides of a mysterious gorge…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE GORGE?

It irritates me slightly whenever someone declares a film that they’re ultimately indifferent to as “certainly a movie that exists” or “definitely one of the movies of all time”. Like, I get the ironic wordplay and all, but the joke is now pretty stale when describing something of utter mediocrity, and unless it’s truly warranted then perhaps it’s best not to overuse it to where it becomes annoying to hear every time a mid-at-best movie comes out.

In the case of director Scott Derrickson’s The Gorge, however, the statement is justified, as this certainly a movie that exists, and is definitely one of the movies of all time.

Neither awful nor terrific, the Zach Dean-penned movie exists on a plane of eternal mediocrity, where nearly every plot beat or line of dialogue or piece of action is as rote as they come, functioning as they were designed to before moving swiftly onto the next thing. You’re not getting anything profound here, nor are you getting something that’s pure trash: The Gorge simply is, for better or worse, a movie you come across one day, watch all the way through, and then forget that you ever watched it.

The film follows two highly elite snipers – American ex-Marine Levi (Miles Teller) and Lithuanian assassin Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) – who are separately recruited to be stationed at two posts for a year on both sides of a mysterious gorge, located in the middle of an unspecified but exceptionally remote location. Although contact between posts is strictly forbidden (for reasons that are never made clear), their mundane daily routines of checking and replacing explosives, designed to keep whatever’s lurking about in said gorge, soon draw them together: first at a distance, with the two engaging in Love Actually-style signage from their distant towers, and later for an in-person date night. However, when circumstances force the two of them to plunge into the gorge itself, Levi and Drasa must find a way to escape before they are consumed by the monstrous environment around them.

This is a movie of roughly two halves, and neither of them are especially captivating. The first half is an odd mix of isolationist drama and romantic-comedy, with the occasional bit of creature horror peppered in for extra taste, as Taylor-Joy’s Drasa and Miller’s Levi both deal with the solitary nature of their vague separate missions, explained via lengthy yet detail-lite exposition dumps by the likes of Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù and Sigourney Weaver, as well as their mutual liking of one another. There are some nice moments here and there, especially as the two leads exchange playful banter with one another (and, during one montage, hastily remind the viewer of the actors’ past respective roles in The Queen’s Gambit and Whiplash), but there’s nothing particularly eventful going on to really draw you in, and the chemistry between Taylor-Joy and Teller is a little stiff, leaving you not entirely convinced of their functionality as an unlikely romantic couple. Much of their drama is also fairly surface-level, with one experiencing some severe PTSD from a past mission and the other going through a personal loss, neither of which are looked into that deeply and just feel like unnecessary extra baggage for a pair of already thin protagonists.

Then, the film figuratively and literally descends during its second half, which is where director Derrickson’s past horror background comes much further into play, a source of potential that is again is marred by an unprecedented level of “meh”. The ultimate revelation of what lies in the gorge is not that much of a surprise, and it also comes with its own heavily expositional dialogue that sucks some of the B-movie fun out of it. You can also tell that both Derrickson and writer Dean are wearing their visual influences on their sleeves, as there’s plenty of H.P. Lovecraft in the designs of certain creatures, all amidst the action beats of a typical Resident Evil video game, which creates a realm that may be visually stunning in places (thanks to Dan Laustsen’s colourfully drab cinematography) but lacks its own voice to really stand out from its clear inspiration.

Alarmingly, for a movie that should be able to embrace both competing tones and genres for a fun enough time, The Gorge just isn’t very entertaining to sit through. You aren’t all that gripped by the central romance that dominates the first half, nor by the more action-heavy latter half, because there’s little in both the direction and the writing that demands your full attention, leaving you more interested in what’s on your phone more than the actual screen you should be watching (one of the many disadvantages of this movie, along with countless others, debuting at home instead of in cinemas). To a point, you’re impressed by the high production values that make the film look more epic than it actually is – at least, when there isn’t some spotty CGI lurking in the foreground or background – but nothing can fully distract from the emptiness one gets from the story and characters, all of which just simply follow the guidelines and barely, if at all, deviate from the assigned course.

It really is a movie that just exists, one that people undoubtedly put time and money into writing, designing, performing, editing and rendering, and nothing more or less. Like I said, the oversaturated statement is accurate here.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Gorge is an overwhelmingly mediocre attempt to blend romance with Lovecraftian horror, but lacks the entertainment and intrigue to keep either element afloat, leaving you simply watching a movie unfold with no real engagement beyond the somewhat wasted premise.