High Lane

The teenagers Fred (Nicolas Giraud), his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler) and their friends Chloe (Fanny Valette), William (Raphaël Lenglet) e Luke (Johan Libéreau) travel to Croatia to climb and hike along the day. They find the starting point closed with rocks but the experienced climber Fred convinces the others, including the coward Luke that has a crush on Chloe and wants to be close to her, to cross the tract climbing the mountain. Along their journey, they realize that the trail is more dangerous than they thought: the rope bridge collapses after their crossing and the handle in the mountain is busted. Fred climbs with 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 not find Fred that has disappeared. When Chloe falls in a hole with a trap, they question what do people hunt in that isolated spot. When they discover the truth, their entertainment turns into a fight to survive.

"Vertige" has a breathless beginning with the adventure of the group of five friends in the Balkans. In the first half of this movie, the plot is very tense and I do not know how far the actors and actresses have climbed or crossed the rope bridge in times of CGI, but the result is effective with excellent scenes and camera work and I was nervous with the situation of the poor guys. Unfortunately the second part of the story is a violent collection of clichés "à la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and many other sub-products of the slash genre. Luke is an annoying character and the final decision of Chloe with the fate of Anton is simply ridiculous. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Vertigem" ("Vertigo")

The film starts like an exciting hiking trip which has quite a few impressive sights and scenes in the beginning, you will root for the characters... Then at some point midway it turns into a horror in Wrong turn style... Generally I enjoyed the film but the illogical actions of all heroes annoy the hell out of me... There is another film called " A Lonely place to die" much more intriguing ...

Another french thriller, with a group of people getting themselves into trouble. Of course some decisions they make, are really bad and the peril they find themselves in, will divide them (more or less and no, no pun intended).

But what makes this worth-while are the characters and the actors portraying them. You have quite some different people and the tension in the group helps the movie move along. Which is of course necessary with a movie like this. It's not that you will really like them, but they are different personalities and everybody has at least one scene he/she can shine.

Another thing that I would like to see (maybe in the inevitable American Remake?): The movie in 3-D. There were quite a few scenes, that would have made sense in 3-D, were even the "flat" version looked "3-D-ish" ... At least that's how it felt for me :o)

Vertige - High Land - CATCH IT (B) French movie about six friends trapped on the Zip line is frightening & thrilling. Towards the end it may start to feel like a part of Wrong Turn but still it's worth a shot. Last year's Melisa George's British movie "A Lonely Place to Die" seems took some inspiration from here though nonetheless her movie was great as it covered the horrific subject matter of rich children's kidnapping & captivity for ransom. Anyways, the performances by young cast Nicolas Giraud, Fanny Valette, Johan Libéreau, Maud Wyler and Raphaël Lenglet are admirable, as the tension between the characters keeps you on edge. I had fun time watching it.

A Group of friends decide to do some weekend rock climbing, to bond together through one of the friends having a traumatic experience, as her work as a nurse. What starts off as a lot of fun, turns into a nightmare when they encounter some problems, leaving them stranded on the mountain with nowhere to go. To add insult to injury, they are being stalked by a Mountain man, who doesn't like the fact that they are in his territory. Let the hunt begin!

First off, the first half of this film is absolutely incredible! The cinematography is absolutely astounding and will draw you into it from the start. The rock climbing scenes left my hands sweating, which is something that happens to me, as I have a fear of heights. So for a film to do this to me, shows how sensational the camera angles were in this very memorable experience. There were some genuinely spine tingling moments of suspense, which I can liken to the movie "Cliffhanger". You really are on the edge of your seat for a good 40 to 50 minutes. Unfortunately, when the slasher element kicks in, the movie becomes a major disappointment. The villain was not very memorable and the kills lacked creativity. The annoying characters didn't add any added incentive to feel sorry for their situation, so when the emotional scenes take place, there is just no sense of loss. As the movie ends, you will be left scratching your head, wondering how the director made a meal of what should have been a classic. Thankfully the first half of the film makes it worth the effort to have at least one viewing.