The Gorge Review: Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller Play a Survival Horror Videogame

While Scott Derrickson’s filmography includes a few misses, the director has mostly been a reliable source of thrills and chills. His Sinister is arguably one of the best horror movies of the 2010s, and The Black Phone was such a massive hit that Derrickson will be back in theaters later this year with a sequel. So, given that The Gorge can also count on the incredible talents of Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller, chances were slim that Derrickson’s Apple TV+ horror movie wouldn’t be at least entertaining. It is — yet, there’s only so much Derrickson’s sleek direction can do to elevate Zach Dean’s script, which sadly doesn’t know how to use the full potential of The Gorge’s brilliant premise.

The Gorge follows the story of two of the world’s top sharpshooters, U.S. mercenary Levi (Teller) and Lithuanian assassin Drasa (Taylor-Joy). Their bloody line of business has prevented them from forging meaningful human relationships, and after years of pulling the trigger for money or duty, they are both searching for a bigger purpose. Lucky for them, Levi and Drasa’s loneliness becomes an asset when they are enlisted to be stationed in remote defense towers built around a mysterious gorge. Their tasks include restocking ammo for automated machine guns, maintaining the satellite scramblers that provide the place’s secrecy, and taking up arms when humanoid creatures living inside the foggy chasm try to climb its cliffs.

Drasa and Levi have no information on where they will be sent or what dangers await them after their arrival, but their black ops experience pushes both to take the same leap of faith. In addition, they both have clear instructions not to interact with the people on the tower on the gorge’s other side, an unknown ally in their safeguarding assignment. These directives underline the confidentiality of their mission and the lengths their contractors are willing to go to in order to protect the gorge’s secrets. However, humans long for connection. So, as months go by, Drasa and Levi yield to temptation and begin to communicate through messages written on whiteboards and pieces of paper that each other can read through binoculars.

The Gorge is one of those movies with a core idea so good that you wonder how anyone hasn’t done this before. For starters, the secluded environment of each tower offers Derrickson the perfect background to explore the weight of routine, both a valuable tool and a shackle to human existence. Drasa and Levi find solace in everyday repetition, keeping their minds busy instead of wandering through the dark corners of their memories. Still, they need ways to transcend the monotony, creating and consuming art or engaging with housekeeping projects that surpass their daily obligations. As their relationship evolves across the canyon, Drasa and Levi also get incredibly creative in showing affection for each other despite their physical separation.

There’s a lot going on in The Gorge, which offers a genre mashup you rarely see. Drasa and Levi’s romance guides a story about finding love where you least expect it and the joys of crossing paths with someone with whom you can bare your soul and share your pain. At the same time, the sci-fi nature of the gorge thrusts the movie into fantasy territory. Finally, Derrickson uses the protagonists’ background and the nature of the gorge to craft genuine scares and thrilling action scenes. All these moving pieces don’t always fit harmonically together, but The Gorge is truly special when they do.

The movie has glaring downsides, though. Above all is the foolish decision to use CGI instead of practical effects for creature design. Yes, CGI can cheapen a production, and budget is a primary concern for a movie destined to go straight to streaming. Nevertheless, when the action amps up, Drasa and Levi must defend themselves against waves of creatures that feel weightless due to their digital nature. In fact, the second half of The Gorge leans so heavily into digital effects that it looks like Taylor-Joy and Teller are videogame characters mindlessly mowing down enemies.

Dean’s script contributes to the uncomfortable feeling The Gorge would fare better as a videogame. The movie’s first half has plenty of breathing space for us to know the leading characters, learn what makes them tick, and care about their fate. On the other hand, the second half is a collection of set pieces interrupted by heavy-handed exposition. The Gorge doesn’t trust its audience to understand the nature of its supernatural elements. However, since the twists are somewhat predictable and extensively telegraphed, it hurts the movie’s pacing to interrupt it so often just for a secondary character to dump another pile of unnecessary information. 

To be fair to Dean, some of these scenes smell like studio interference, as streaming services sometimes try to dumb down plot points to reach a wider audience. But without knowing what happened behind the cameras, we can only blame the person who signed the paper. As things are, The Gorge has a clear point of no return where the focus shifts from Taylor-Joy and Teller’s enthralling performances to generic survival horror tropes.

There’s still a lot to love in The Gorge despite its shortcomings. Taylor-Joy and Teller give their characters believable personalities, and it’s delicious to watch these two misguided souls falling in love while fighting hordes of monsters. Derrickson is also a great director who always finds a way to make even the simplest interactions between the duo interesting — the sequence when Drasa and Levi meet face-to-face for the first time is already worth the whole movie. 

It’s a shame that The Gorge can’t fulfill all its promises. Its run time could be trimmed without losing its best bits, and the script could be tweaked to create a more fluid film experience. Furthermore, with better effects — preferably practical — this movie could win big at the box office, as its best action scenes would look perfect on the silver screen. Even so, Derrickson delivers a nice popcorn flick. So, by the time the credits roll, The Gorge justifies the time spent in front of your television.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Gorge premieres exclusively on Apple TV+ on February 14th.