Banner image: Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy in The Gorge, premiering 14 February 2025 on Apple TV+
You don’t need to look past the poster to see that The Gorge, director Scott Derrickson’s latest offering for Apple TV+, is unabashed popcorn entertainment.
And whether it’s the gloriously cheesy name or the ludicrous premise, something about the trailer promises a return to a now-cherished time in cinema history – before endless horror prequels and video game adaptations. The days of one-off stories with preposterous plots when a special kind of B-movie could succeed at the box office and, with a little bit of magic, even become a classic.
Unfortunately, what Derrickson delivers isn’t unselfconscious entertainment, but an unsure, genre-spliced mess of a movie. In its best moments, The Gorge does just enough for you to like it, and, in its worst, can’t seemingly be bothered to try.
The story follows two deadly snipers – American Levi (Miles Teller) and Lithuanian Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) – recruited by their respective powers-that-be for a clandestine mission. We watch as Levi jumps from a plane and hikes through the God-knows-where wilderness only to arrive at the edge of a foggy abyss, where two towers stand watch on either precipice. As Levi peers into the eerie ravine, Gangs of London’s Sope Dirisu appears; Levi’s his replacement and it’s time for a briefing.
We learn that the two towers were erected in the 1940s by a special coalition. The state-of-the-art defence system along the gorge’s perimeter – featuring mines, automatic turrets, etc. – isn’t, as Levi initially suspects, to keep people out. Instead, it’s there to prevent what’s lurking down in its misty depths from emerging. To illustrate, Dirisu lobs a grenade over the edge and the explosion triggers a cacophony of monstrous wails and screeches. Levi’s job, Dirisu explains, is to stand guard over the Western side, while his Eastern counterpart watches over the other, but contact between the two is strictly forbidden.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller in ‘The Gorge’, premiering 14 February 2025 on Apple TV+
With his massive exposition dump over, Dirisu dips, leaving Levi to his long year as a solitary sentry. Though, unsurprisingly, this isolation doesn’t last long, and soon – aided by a whiteboard, a set of ultra-powered binoculars, and conveniently impeccable penmanship – Levi strikes up a flirty back and forth with Drasa (also apparently a calligraphy connoisseur), who’s been stationed on the other side. A cutesy montage follows as the lonely mercenaries woo each other with long-range displays of affection.
Despite feeling minor whiplash at the sudden change of tone – from shady thriller to goofy romance – a sentimental and easily pleased viewer (i.e. me) may feel some of their initial hesitations subsiding at this point. While nothing spectacular or original is happening, Zach Dean’s script hits enough industry-standard story beats to make us root for Levi and Drasa’s lockdown-esque romance. And Teller and Taylor-Joy are charming as they trade eyebrow raises and playful sniper shots across the valley.
However, aptly for a flick whose premise resolves around a central dividing chasm, The Gorge is a film of two halves. And if the first is merely middling, the second is really subpar. After a fleeting date night with Drasa in the Eastern tower, Levi is ziplining back across the canyon for his monthly radio check-in when CGI monstrosities known as ‘Hollow Men’ emerge on the cliff-face, triggering the defensive mines. The explosion severs Levi’s wire and plunges him into the gloomy trench, with Drasa following closely behind.
We all know from suspenseful classics like Alien and Jaws that movie monsters are more terrifying before we can see them – and that expectant tension of something yet-to-be-revealed is usually far more riveting than the thing itself. But even considering these natural storytelling hurdles, the world below the gorge’s cloudy canopy is disappointing.
Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘The Gorge’, premiering 14 February 2025 on Apple TV+
Despite Derrickson’s impressive horror credentials and the 15 rating, the vibe has more in common with the early-2010s YA dystopia Teller made his name in than spine-chilling sci-fi. Everything feels like Disneyland – from the technicoloured fog to the plasticky sets. The Hollow Men’s uninspired design looks templated from Davy Jones’ undead, waterlogged crew from Pirates of the Caribbean – albeit less fishy. Maybe with a bit of Treebeard from The Lord of the Rings thrown in, but, nevertheless, nothing to write home about.
Even the script takes a turn for the worse as the filmmakers awkwardly pivot genres once again, this time from romantic comedy to sci-fi horror – with the two leads uttering soulless action movie one-liners like theme park animatronics. It’s vacuous, dull, and despite the screenwriter’s best efforts, no amount of wafer-thin T. S. Eliot references can cover it up. Even the action is forgettable.
But ultimately, the film’s main issues come with its unconventional approach to genre. Instead of blending elements to create a unique but consistent tone – for example, in 2020’s thoroughly entertaining Love and Monsters – Derrickson and Dean serve them up one after another. It’s like a jarring three-course meal where the chef hasn’t thought about how each dish informs the others, and the waiter keeps taking your plate before you’ve finished eating.
Teller and Taylor-Joy do what they can with what the script allows, but the characters end up just as unconvincing and muddily rendered as the world they inhabit. And by the time the explanation for the mysterious gorge’s existence arrives, audiences will have endured enough far-fetched anachronisms that they won’t be too disappointed when a clever resolution never arrives.
The Gorge debuts on Apple TV+ on Friday the 14th of February.
Are you planning to watch The Gorge? Or have you seen it already? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.