The Gorge seemed to, in theory, have everything going for it. A solid director, great casting and a really intriguing premise. All of that though won't help the fact that any movie going straight to streaming is only going to get me so excited. It's not a very good script and the back half definitely isn't as strong as the initial set up but I did for the most part find The Gorge to be an enjoyable experience.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller do really end up being the reason to see this film. Their chemistry is insane and the movie's at its best when we're seeing their interactions play out, even when they're not directly on screen together. You ship them straight away and, even if it was predicable in places, I was still very happy with how the central romance played out. It's a lot funnier than I expected it to be and the script does do a good job and building up the mystery of this gorge. I do think they revealed the nature of what's in the gorge too early however and it's when the film starts to answer the questions it's been building where things start to falter for me. The second half is basically a completely different movie and it's just where things started to feel a bit generic. The exposition is very lazy and it feels like Scott Derrickson is trying to play into his horror roots but to mixed results. The threats these characters face feel very copy and paste from other films and it ends up feeling quite drab visually. The CGI is weak and the most accurate way the I can describe the cinematography is that it looks like something designed directly for streaming. Thankfully the mystery ends up taking a back seat to the character interactions in the closing scenes and as cheesy as it was the ending did work for me.
The Gorge is at its best when it lets these 2 character play of each other and while the mystery and horror elements don't always work I was always at least entertained. It's just unfortunate that the script does know how to answer its intriguing questions in a completely satisfying way. It's much better than most of the slop that goes straight to streaming and I thinks it's an easy film to recommend in spite of its flaws.
