Visitors Review

(2012-05-26 14:38)

;0)

This movie was pretty decent thriller. A group went hiking and while hiking there is something hunting them. When it started I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch because it seem like it would be your typical D rated movie, but I was wrong it kept me awake and it gave me the jumps a little. Good scary thriller.

quinnox-1 (2012-05-26 02:40)

An excellent first half of suspense/drama before turning into a cruddy horror film

For the first half of the movie it was an interesting and good suspensestory, about a group of carefree youthful friends who go on a mountainclimbing adventure, and the obstacles they encounter on their moreperilous than anticipated day trip. Disregarding that the route theywant to climb is closed, they boldly and perhaps foolishly, go on andstart their climb.This is where the movie is well done, with breathtaking and scarycamera shots of the ground far below as they make their way across thinprecarious ledges on the mountainside and the sense of danger isprominent and sustained, until finally they end up at a rickety anddangerous looking rope bridge they must cross. All this is interestingto watch, especially for those who like outdoors adventures, added tothis is a character who is more timid than the others in the group andis scared of heights, who has troubles navigating these perils whichadds more tension to these scenes.However, after they cross the rope bridge, which ends up being athrilling and tense scene, the movie turns into a stupid generic horrorfilm of a backwoods crazed maniac who lives on the mountain and hebegins to hunt them down. The killer is not scary at all, and played bya guy who looks like some goof ball lumberjack and its quitedisappointing when he is revealed. The characters also start to makereally dumb decisions as is typical in horror movies, and basically theentire second half of the movie is a total dud, and can be skippedwithout missing anything good.So I think this movie is actually worth seeing for the first halfalone, which was surprisingly gripping when it involved the human dramaof navigating a difficult mountain climb.

kluseba (2012-05-25 21:09)

"Cliffhanger" meets "The Hills Have Eyes"

"Vertige" is a very entertaining movie with a lot of intense suspensein the first half that is comparable to "Cliffhanger". Apart of somegeneric character plays, the first half especially convinces with aninteresting camera work that perfectly captures the vertigo and thefears of of one of the characters. By watching these scenes you reallycan identify with the character and you won't feel at ease as well. Youfeel as if you were climbing up the mountains of Croatia and sufferingfrom vertigo for real. The first half also shows us many greatlandscapes captured by a very good camera work once again.The second part of the movie turns from a suspenseful action drama intoa solid horror movie that can be compared to the legendary "The HillsHave Eyes". The transition is well developed enough to not feel like asudden rupture but it might still mislead some people. Those whoexpected an intense mountaineer feature may be mixed up and feeldisappointed by the second half. Those who awaited a rather genericadult horror movie might already get confused by the first half of themovie. The mixture of both genres is very particular and I personallyequally adored both halves but this experimental idea is rathercourageous and might not sell well. It can be considered as a mistakefrom a commercial point of view. From an artistic point of view, theidea is worth it and turns out to be rather intriguing.In this second part of the movie, there are some gore and splatterscenes but fortunately the movie rather focuses on the atmosphere andthe fate of the characters than on a generic slaughter fest. Thenegative thing is that the fate of the main villain is not explainedand the screenwriters could have created a few better ideas and a moreprofound character. On the other side, even though the movie has aradical change of style and genre, the flick is very dynamical and willkeep you on the edge of your seat until the end even though there areno big twists or surprises in the movie that might push this flickabove average. The ending is a little bit too generic and has some veryweak and random explanations for what we have seen in about ninetyminutes.There is a lot of potential in this feature and it's surelyentertaining but it could have been better with an additional runningtime of maybe ten minutes and an improved ending. If you see this moviefor a cheap price or if it is shown on television, don't hesitate tobuy or watch this but don't spend more money on it and don't expectanything outstanding.

baba44713 (2012-05-25 10:33)

Unwatchable dreck

When I heard about some french horror situated in Croatia, I wasoverjoyed. Beautiful Croatian scenery combined with exciting climbingscenes coupled with a classic slasher plot line.. perfect movie for theSunday night.Boy, was I wrong.First of all, yes, I knew beforehand that the movie was an utter ripoffof Descent/Wrong Turn. However I like both of those movies and am notnecessarily against ripping off if it is done well - after all, it'shard to film a slasher flick and be original. Unfortunately, Vertigedoes it anything BUT well.Right off the bat, we are introduced to the most unlikeable bunch offuture cannon fodder you have ever seen. It doesn't help that they areas one-dimensional as possible - you have a "climber", "climber'sgirlfriend", a girl who is a "doctor", "doctor's hunky ex-boyfriend"and "doctor's current vertigo-ridden boyfriend". This is as far as themovie goes with characterizations. Oh, and I forgot, they are alsoutter morons with a survival instinct of a lobotomized dodo. It alsodoesn't help that the actors portraying those characters, are, well,let's say that they should perhaps try to find some other ventures inthe future. Especially the vertigo guy who constantly mixes "beingscared" expression with the "heavily constipated" one.After realizing that, barring some miracle, I'm stuck with these folksfor an hour and a half, I at least settled in the notion that I will belooking at some nice Risnjak scenery. Tough luck - whoever made thisflick probably chose "Croatia" and "Risnjak" purely because they soundsorta exotic - the scenery doesn't look anything like Croatia'sNational Park of the same name - strike two. But there's the plot, right? *Sigh*. Our gang decides to go via some"closed down" route with the "longest footbridge in Europe". By theway, Croatians have built this longest footbridge as a part of theroute that goes absolutely nowhere. This is a plot point.Once they cross the footbridge, it falls apart despite being clearlyshown as made from shiny new parts and having at least five redundantsafety wires. Well, that's Croatians for you, not only do they buildEurope's longest footbridges to nowhere, they also create bridgesupport points out of legos and spit.This is the first half of the movie, with the thrills mostly having todo with the oh-so-irritating vertigo guy hyperventilating and fallingover ledges (remember, legos and spit). The second half introduces someinsane Croat called Anton Zukarech (which sounds as Croatian as "JohnWayne", but I digress). This guy starts killing the poor French idiots,because, uh, well, just because. And it's hard NOT to root for himbecause our hikers do all but tattoo "cut here" lines on their necksand bicker about who gets to bite the dust first.The rest of the movie is mostly listening to groans and screams,watching our heroes acting like idiots some more for the plot to plodforward, witnessing painfully obvious continuity mistakes (trivia fact:in Croatia it takes ten minutes to go from midnight to high noon) andGod is this movie ever going to end.. Anton, man, what's taking you solong?After the last scene (groan), cue the final insult - the director choseto inform us that there are "3270 unexplained disappearances in theBalkans". I don't even have to check for the fact that this talentlesshack pulled this number out of his ass, mostly because "Balkans" isprobably the hardest geographical region to define and would hardly beused in any statistics. I guess he didn't want to anger the Croats toomuch and blatantly fabricate some statistical data about imaginarydisappearances in Croatia itself. Too late, he already angered not justCroats but everyone else duped into seeing this dreck.I have utterly disliked this movie. There are no scares, no thrills,there is some gore if you are into that sort of thing, but most of thetime the movie is nearly unwatchable. The protagonists are paper-thincharacters who are so unbelievably irritating you are actively rootingfor Anton to put them out of their misery, which cannot happen soonenough. Seriously, seeing this movie through in one sitting is anexercise in masochism.I give it a 2/10, mostly because it's short and some of the scenery isnice (although it's not Croatia but French Alps). But you are SO betteroff watching Descent or Wrong Turn instead. Or any other Americanslasher B-movie for that matter.P.S. In the last five years, 1,457 French doctors had random flashbacksthat have had nothing to do with anything whatsoever.

bmritter (2012-05-25 14:28)

French movie that had something tries to be American C rate slasher

This movie started off excellent. The shots of the mountains and thebeauty of nature shown through that first half of the film was justamazing and breath taking !! This movie has one of my favorite Frenchactors Johan Libereau (Loic- or Luke)and the movie started outexciting, fresh, full of adventure, and was thrilling keeping mewanting more. When the leader (Fred) got caught in a bear trap I wastense with excitement, and wondered what they would do next. Then itwent down hill right after that, and it just plummeted. I quite caringabout the movie about 2 minutes after Fred got dragged away. It wentfrom a great cinematic French experience (despite the terrible Englishdubbing) to a terrible wannabe-American-terrible C rate horror film.Loic became really annoying and whinny, ruining the talents of Johan(Les Temoins,Douches Froides,Q,and Un Coeur Simple). The flashbacks ofChloe and Im assuming her brother or former patient didn't match withthe storyline in my opinion. Did I mention that the version I watchedhad terrible English dubbing ? The killer wasn't scary or intimidating,and the deaths the cast experience are ridiculous, especially Loic'sand Karines. This movie goes from epic to worthless in a 3 minute span,I would suggest only watching the first half and not disappointingyourself with the rest.

(2012-05-25 05:47)

Climbing The Mountains Of Madness...

HIGH LANE (aka: VERTIGE) is about a group of rock climbers who venture into the Croatian mountains. All is well until horrible "accidents" befall them, and they begin running into a series of deadly traps. HIGH LANE is a DESCENT / WRONG TURN-type hybrid. I liked most of this movie, right up to the point when the feral madman is revealed. Yes, he's "bonkers". He just isn't all that terrifying. His lair is rather creepy, but nothing we haven't grown to expect from these sort of guys. Still, HL is worth a peek...

dschmeding (2012-05-24 01:56)

Wrong turn in the mountains

The basic plot of Vertige is pretty lame and worn off considering thatwe are talking about a group of five mountain climbers who take anadventurous hike on a mountain path that goes overboard and turns intoa fight for survival.Its like Wrong Turn if you replace the woods with mountains. At firstyou think it could go a different direction because the first halfworks pretty well as a kind of adventure movie with mountain climbers.You get some pretty impressive climbing sequences with lines snappingand nice action mixed with beautiful landscape shots and some nicecamera-work... as well as a pretty hot female lead actress (althoughshe chose a pretty strange dress for that trip that gives the viewersome pretty nice views of her mountains too). As soon as the movieturns to be a survival horror with some mountain hillbilly maniac whohunts climbers it goes overboard. There is no resolution of the obscureguy hunting the climbers and the flashback sequences about somemishappenings in the life of the female lead who seems to be a doctorare pretty meaningless and cheap.Vertige is a typical style over substance movie with a giant letdown inthe end and a plot that is as paper thin as the clichéd characterdevelopment. Anyone who has high hopes for another great french horrormovie should stay away from this. The action sequences are really goodbut i doubt thats enough for a feature movie. first turns out closedand on further investigation becomes quite stressful when bridges breakand cables burst.

Scott Weinberg (2012-05-23 07:42)

As unexpectedly entertaining as it is plainly beholden to several other suspense thrillers and horror flicks.

timaenot (2012-05-22 09:12)

Worth seeing the first 1/2 hour of it.

I stay wondering why so many directors and screenplay writers ofwannabe-horror movies ruin the good ideas they have in the beginning.This movie starts really good, it seems to deal with hobbymountain-climbing and interpersonal tensions. Indeed, mountain-climbingcan turn out to be real horror if you are not particularly good at itand if you take a closed (certainly not without a reason) path. In thefirst 1/2 hour of the movie, nice camera shots and great landscapesconvey a feeling of vertigo and a vague sense of danger - which isvery, very credible in the given situation. Things can go wrong, ropescan tear, vertigo can drive you to madness, you can get lost in themountains, there can be a tempest - all that is horror, because it islikely to happen in real life. So WHY the hell is there any need for"boosting" a life-like situation with some maniac moron hunting thecharacters? WHY do they always turn a real horror situation into astereotyped, paper-thin, seen-over-a-thousand-of-times slasher? It isthe same with "The Descent" which had excellent premises to get reallyscary (in the end, there are not many things as gruesome as beingtrapped in some huge subterranean labyrinth of holes without any map)but instead, decided to put in some stupid monsters which ruined thewhole suspense and the sense of horror. Horrific are only things whichseem realistic or in some way convey the sense of the possibility toget realistic. There is no need for additional "boost"! Folks, show mea horror movie based on completely natural premises and the appropriatedevelopment of characters in the given situation - and I will sing youa love song. But it seems easier to get some mad hunter or monsters inthan to develop real tensions and real situations.

(2012-05-21 12:10)

You'll love the first half, but the second half disappoints

High Lane (original title: Vertige) tries to pack the action and thrills of two different horror films into one. The first half of the film is a true winner, especially effective for those of us with a deathly fear of heights; the second half isn't bad, either, with its liberal dose of gore and a splash or two of victims behaving badly, but it's definitely a step down from all that has come before. The real bad guy of the film is rather generic and boring, but the film makes up for this somewhat by the villainy that sometimes emerges from characters we are supposed to be rooting for - and I think that's a nice touch indeed. Just when you start thinking a certain character isn't a complete douche after all, he proves you wrong.So, five friends decide to do some rock climbing and aerial sightseeing in the Croatian mountains. Actually, it's two couples plus a former boyfriend of one of the girls (who somehow managed to invite himself along for the trip). The presence of her ex Guillaume doesn't seem to bother Chloe (Fanny Valette) too much, but current boyfriend Loic clearly isn't happy about it at all. Heck, Chloe's the only reason he's here to risk his life climbing mountains to begin with, and now this ex-boyfriend shows up and puts him to shame in every way possible (heck, Loic even makes me look like a manly man). Now, Fred and Karine (Maud Wyler) are all about the adventure. Given the fact that they are French, they are incredibly brave. While most people with half a brain would turn back when they see that the trail is closed, Fred talks everyone into climbing a sheer rock face and doing what they came to do. It turns out that the trail was closed for a reason, so the group has quite an adventure on their hands. Prepare for a great mix of beautiful scenery (but it's not Croatian, as the movie was filmed in the French Alps) and harrowing action shots that will have my fellow acrophobics squirming in their seats. If High Lane had just stuck to this nothing-but-a-rope-between-you-and-a-big-sharp-rock-thousands-of-feet-below premise, it could well have been an incredibly intense and effective thriller - unfortunately, the story morphs completely at the mid-way point into just another Wrong Turn copy-cat, leaving most of the chills and thrills behind. Yes, the special effects and the gore are well-done, but the villain is bland and the action far too generic. The only suspense or surprise comes when a character does something really stupid or downright vindictive. I liked the ending, though, as it did at least show a tiny bit of originality.The first half of High Lane is A-level work, but the second half deserves several comments in red ink. It's unfortunate because everything (except the dubbing) was going so well. There is also the matter of Chloe's flashbacks to a traumatic event in her life, which only works to a certain degree and could (perhaps should) have been removed from the plot, but I can live with that. High Lane isn't all it could have been, but it's still an impressive and sometimes quite thrilling horror offering from director Abel Ferry. I hear that Fanny Valette is a real up-and-coming actress in Europe, as well.

Claudio Carvalho (2012-05-21 00:20)

Breathless Beginning and Unoriginal Development and Conclusion

The teenagers Fred (Nicolas Giraud), his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler)and their friends Chloe (Fanny Valette), William (Raphaël Lenglet) eLuke (Johan Libéreau) travel to Croatia to climb and hike along theday. They find the starting point closed with rocks but the experiencedclimber Fred convinces the others, including the coward Luke that has acrush on Chloe and wants to be close to her, to cross the tractclimbing the mountain. Along their journey, they realize that the trailis more dangerous than they thought: the rope bridge collapses aftertheir crossing and the handle in the mountain is busted. Fred climbswith Karine to help their friends but he is wounded in a bear trap.Karine uses a rope to bring their friends to the top, but they do notfind Fred that has disappeared. When Chloe falls in a hole with a trap,they question what do people hunt in that isolated spot. When theydiscover the truth, their entertainment turns into a fight to survive."Vertige" has a breathless beginning with the adventure of the group offive friends in the Balkans. In the first half of this movie, the plotis very tense and I do not know how far the actors and actresses haveclimbed or crossed the rope bridge in times of CGI, but the result iseffective with excellent scenes and camera work and I was nervous withthe situation of the poor guys. Unfortunately the second part of thestory is a violent collection of clichés "à la The Texas ChainsawMassacre" and many other sub-products of the slash genre. Luke is anannoying character and the final decision of Chloe with the fate ofAnton is simply ridiculous. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Vertigem" ("Vertigo")

(2012-05-20 10:34)

High Lane

"High Lane" was directed by Abel Ferry and stars Fanny Valette (Chloé), Johan Libéreau (Loïc), Raphaël Lenglet (Guillaume), Nicolas Giraud (Fred), and Maud Wyler (Karine) as a group of friends (two couples and a fifth wheel) who decide to go mountain climbing on a mountain closed for repairs and end up getting hunted by a deranged killer.The climbers see that the pass is closed but go anyway, a classic beginning to a nature horror movie where nature enthusiasts bite off more than they can chew. It seems like it will be easy going since this mountain is equipped for safe climbing complete with ladder rungs wedged deep into the mountain and steel safety cords to hook onto. Everyone is wearing safety harnesses with double lanyard hooks so this should be simple, right?The first setback besides the pass being closed is that Loïc clearly has a fear of heights combined with vertigo that he is attempting to hide from the group to keep his pride intact in front of his girlfriend, Chloé's ex, Guilliaume who is still in love with her. The action begins fast and one accident after another occurs until it becomes clear these are not just accidents and someone is out to get these hikers.I already have a pretty established fear of heights so watching even the "fun" portions of their trip was enough to tie my stomach in knots. The movie gets more intense as every worse case scenario begins to enfold on them. The tension between the ex-boyfriend and the new boyfriend is heated up by the stress of trying to find a way out despite losing group members. It is a shorter film, only one hour and twenty minutes so there is no wasted screen time dwelling on talking about feelings or back story when the situation is so much more dire than that. This is a terrifying movie that tensed me up considerably throughout!!Bonus Features:A trailer.

(2012-05-20 05:54)

First half-hour is worth it, forget the rest.

Vertige (Abel Ferry, 2009)The first thirty minutes of Vertige, released in America as High Lane, are by far the movie's best and scariest. At that point, this is a very simple man vs. nature plot, in which Fred (Taken's Nicolas Giraud), a climber who also seems to be one of those go-go-go self-help gurus, and his girlfriend Karine (Low Life's Maud Wyler) take a trio of others for a climb on what, Fred tells us enthusiastically, is the highest, longest (read: most grueling) climb in Europe. We're told it's somewhere in Croatia, though I can't remember where for the life of me (it has been noted on the IMDB discussion boards that it is, in fact, an agglomeration of at least two different climb sites). You know this is going to go wrong when they see a sign saying in no uncertain terms the site is closed for repairs and Fred ignores it. Just to add to the doomy feeling is the fact that our other trio is all full of scary baggage: Karine's friend Chloe (La Petite Jerusalem's Fanny Valette) is a doctor who just had something nasty happen to her at work, though what it was is only gradually revealed throughout the film. Along with her is old boyfriend Guillaume (Les Bleus' Raphael Lenglet), pretty much the epitome of the ruggedly-handsome athletic type, and geeky new boyfriend Loic (Cold Showers' Johan Libereau), who's pretty much the opposite. This is a movie that, given that premise, needs not one more thing other than good acting and a competent director to make it gripping.And for those first thirty minutes, that's exactly what you get, as Loic overestimates his endurance (and underestimates his fear of heights), the group encounter increasingly dangerous situations while thousands of feet in the air, and things in general spiral out of control.Then you hit the half-hour mark, and the movie becomes, in essence, The Ascent with a strong flavor of Deliverance. At which point you know pretty much everything that's going to happen and stop caring about any of it. Okay, you probably can't predict some of the more idiotic character choices, but, you know.Okay, maybe it's not that bad. (Yes, it is, but I'll play devil's advocate for a minute.) You've seen The Descent, you've seen Wrong Turn, you've seen The Hills Have Eyes (hopefully the original and not the hideous remake), you've seen Deliverance, you've seen a dozen or two other films like this, and if you've been following my reviews for at least a few years you've hopefully seen a smattering of really, really good French horror flicks while avoiding their bad ones. And then you come to Vertige and... well, I won't blame you if you actually do watch it, because that first half-hour is something else. But once you get to the point where the movie turns from man vs. nature thriller into dumb slasher flick, you'll start wondering, since you've seen all those other movies, why you're watching this, which is as cavalier in its borrowing from other movies as it is in its blending of climb sites. This is nothing new under the sun, Jack. **

(2012-05-19 11:54)

Great Thriller!

This movie was great! In short, a group of kids go mountain climbing/hiking in the Balkans. Along the way, they, not surprisingly, get hunted, and the story revolves around how well they either evade capture or deal with their adversary (trying to avoid spoiler). Again, it was great. First of all, the camera work of the beginning 1/2 of the film as they hike/mountain climb was outstanding. I'm sure there was a lot of computer graphics, but it never felt that way. Its conceivable they actually did the stunts themselves. Either way, the shots are great, and the tension as they do challenging moves it outstanding. For fans of mountain climbing and advanced hiking, these scenes alone are worth the ride. Then we get to the adversarial part. While this movie is a French analogue of the all too repeated West Virginia mutant gone bad story, it doesn't feel formulaic or tired. Perhaps there isn't that much new in this story compared to the genre of deep woods hikers meets crazy killer, but it feels fresh. Hard to articulate why, but it was really enjoyable. Please understand the film is in french and subtitled with English. Highly recommended.

skiendog-1 (2012-05-19 03:54)

Young friends venture out on afternoon mountaineering trip, that turns very bad.

Descent meets Vertical Limit. Awesome cinematography, great directing, and great acting actuallymakes up for a corny plot and poor character development. Young friendsventure out on afternoon mountaineering trip, that turns very bad. Iwatched the Netflix version, and I think it was dubbed into English. Ifso, it was done very well. After 10 minutes in, I completely forgotabout the fact that it was dubbed. Overall, a solid 8-9. Yes, it'smissing character development, and the plot is corny. But, there'snever a dull moment in the whole movie, and it will have you grippingat your seat. Combine that with the BEAUTIFUL cinematography, and it'sa must-see.

benway1 (2012-05-18 19:06)

unfortunately unwatchable

I was looking forward to watching this one, even a halfhearted blatantDescent/Wrong Turn ripoff could have worked if the whole thing wasn'tburied under such an annoying script. Starts of with some promisinglandscape shots but as soon as the climbing starts it turns out onemember of the group has vertigo. Sure there are worse ideas thanputting a guy with vertigo on a voluntary mountain hike but almost thewhole first half of the movie solely relies on that to create tensionand panic. Combined with the weak acting of this guy, the rest of thegroup (only the grumpy ex-boyfriend character was kinda neutral) andsome of the most uninspired by- the-numbers dangerous situations itonly takes about 20 minutes until I started to keep my fingers crossedfor them to die all at once within the next 5-10 minutes. Oh and andafter they completely lost it the Descent/Wrong Turn ripoff starts,emphasis more on the wrong turn side.

Siamois (2012-05-17 15:46)

Enjoyable!

Another reviewer compared Vertige to Deliverance but nothing could befurther from the truth. Deliverance is a dark drama reflecting oncivilization and nature.Vertige is a more conventional action horror movie that has more incommon with The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn and The Descent. Like thelatter, Vertige is divided roughly in two parts. In the first part, weare introduced to a group of young, outdoor-loving people following achallenging mountain trail. This is where we as the viewers areintroduced to this group's different character dynamics andrelationships. Many scenes in the first half are rather interesting,sometimes thrilling and even downright spectacular. It's no stretch tosay the film truly earned its title (Vertige, vertigo) here. All thetension is created by the various passive obstacles our group face,much like the Descent. In the second half, things turn for the worse. As the threat takes theform of an intelligent, active villain hunting down the group, tryingto pick them apart. Unfortunately, this villain is rather weaklysketched and poorly played. It also seems like the producers ran out ofbudget. Where the climbing scenes were breathtaking in the first part,the fight scenes and chasing in the last part are uninspired and bland. I kept expecting all the challenging background in the first hour toresurface one way or another in the latter stage of the movie but itnever happened. You're just left with an almost standard slasher movie.A poor take on Chainsaw Massacre and so on...I'm giving this movie a 5 because it has an interesting premise andsome great early scenes but the rest really disappoints. If you're abig fan of the movies I mentioned above, this might be worth a rental.If you hate that kind of stuff, you might be better off passing onthis.PS: In the genres listed, horror should definitely be added as it hasall the tropes found in stuff like Wrong Turn, Chainsaw Masssacre,etc...

(2012-05-17 05:22)

The Low Road

When this movie concerns the perils of mountain climbing, it ascends to near excellence. The character infos are concise and pertinent, and the action gets quickly under way. There's plenty of vertiginous suspense, heart-pounding hazards, and sudden, gasp-inducing scares. But then the film descends into the abyss of slasher flickdom with its latest carnation of back-country, degenerate, slicer-dicer killer. The canny and deliberate characters shed about 30 IQ points apiece and become silly, screaming ninnies who run blindly through the dark, heedless of booby traps, precipices, and brutal, sadistic slayer. A non-French speaker scarcely needs subtitles as most of the dialogue devolves into little more than squalling and name-shrieking. The imperiled rapellers sink rapidly into petty squabbling and sexual competition, and fists sometimes fly with all the abandon of a 50's TV Western. Unfortunately, this film's climax comes early on, and it's--ahem--all downhill from there. Rescue scenes are over-edited, robbing the viewer of catharsis, and yet tedious displays of indecision and timidity go on and on. But the blood is, of course, boundless. And, apparently, so is the slasher, since the film's ending blurbs that over 3000 people have disappeared in the Balkans wilds!

(2012-05-16 12:33)

NICE LITTLE SUSPENSE/THRILLER FROM FRANCE!!

Strange movie. In a world where most films are re-makes of re-makes a little strangness is welcome. Apparently in Europe there are established trails up steep cliffs which allow amatuers to climb in places where you would think only real pros could venture. In the US we probably have too many lawyers to allow such things. This plot contrivance is felicitous. It allows us to watch unskilled climbers get into tricky situations. Normally only real experts and athletes are seen in climbing films. But no matter how bad it looks Stalone can be expected to get out of any situation. Here however these aren't action stars hanging off that cliff they are just everyday people with whom one can identify - much more suspenseful. The film has some loose ends and an bizarre change of direction half way through. It's never completely clear where the plot is going - I liked that.

movieman_kev (2012-05-16 00:42)

Turn it off after 25 minutes and you'll be better off

A group of friends go on what was supposed to be a nice mountainclimbing expedition/vacation in Croatia,, but when unforeseen equipmentproblems arise it has everyone feeling a bit on edge (pardon the pun) This film actually had a rather promising start. The scenery wasbeautiful, the fist action sequence was thrilling and I started to gethopes for this film. Shame on me, for no sooner than I was getting goodwill that the film took a drastic Wrong Turn and became a lame cheapHills Have Eyes clone. Between that sad turn of events coupled with anover reliance on one particular song, the taste for this film soured.My Grade: D+