The Gorge: The BRWC Review. By Jake Peffer.

The Gorge follows Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), two operatives that are hired to protect opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. Only being told that the gorge is considered to be “the opening to hell” both Levi and Drasa have no idea what they are in for. While protecting each side of the gorge, no contact is allowed between the two. Once the evil within starts to emerge, the two must come together to do whatever they can to survive and not let the evil escape.

Director Scott Derrickson is mostly known for films in the horror and thriller genres. He has dabbled in the sci-fi area as well with films like Doctor Strange and the 2009 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still. In The Gorge, Derrickson and writer Zach Dean do a great job of blending multiple genres together. While there are elements of horror, thrillers and sci-fi present this also adds plenty of action sequences and, surprisingly, a romantic aspect that is unexpected. Enough is given to each aspect of the story where it never feels like the movie is tonally all over the place.

Once the two leads get to their destination things start to kick into high gear. There are some entertaining action sequences that have some great looking effects. The chemistry between Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy is the biggest highlight of the movie. They have a great dynamic together and watching them bond from afar for most of the movie makes when they eventually come together more special. For most of the movie, it is just Teller and Taylor-Joy and both give great performances. A few others appear in some scenes, including a very underused Sigourney Weaver, but none of the other members of the cast make much of an impact.

When the evil from the gorge does start to emerge, it is a definite surprise. The movie would benefit more from fleshing out the gorge and what is in it but there is enough here that still makes it worthwhile. At times there are some effects that don’t really hold up well. For the most part, most of the effects do look good but there are some obvious uses of green screen and some of the creature designs feel a little overdone. By the end it does feel like it starts to run out of steam. Everything is paced well but once it gets past the hour and forty-minute mark it feels like the story could have ended by that point.

Overall, The Gorge is a nice blend of different genres that features two great performances by Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy. The supporting cast is mostly non-existent, there are some questionable effects at times and the run time does feel just a tad too long. With that being said, the action sequences are entertaining, the bonding between the two leads is fun to watch and the direction by Scott Derrickson is done well. This is a worthy enough movie to add to your watchlist.

Rating: 7/10

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