Sleeper Awakened

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FALL (2022)

8/18/22 - Fall (2022) - 5/10

Pretty formulaic at this point, we have another tale of female friends trapped in an extreme sports situation, trying to avoid death. It’s not trapped underground with cannibals or lost amongst killer creatures because this time they are trapped 2000 feet up at the top of a defunct cell tower. It falls into its own trappings and goes full Descent, which is both a bit tired and slightly surprising (depending on which elements I’m talking about but won’t define as to not spoil anything), but the innate nature of the circumstances do generally make up for the story’s shortcomings. It is hard not to have your palms perspirate as we see them sweat the terror of being trapped so far up. It works for what it is.

Some solid and effective filmmaking, with the height being so effectively expressed through the lens. The actresses do a decent job selling the drama, though their proverbial script climbing equipment wasn’t rated for this kind of climb. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a near waste here, seemingly with all his scenes shot in a day to provide some profile to the film, but so it goes.

A tense and generally enjoyable terror trap, that hits the all-too familiar and predictable beats but still keeps from falling too far from its possibilities.