- Directed by: Brendan Devane
- Written by: Brendan Devane
- Stars: William Fichtner, Jocelyn Hudon, David Clennon
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGWtYeHnM9U
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The movie includes real rock climbers, rock climbing drama and stories, and lots of dizzying footage – that part of the movie is impressive if you’re into that. It’s unfortunately pretty low-key on the horror. The story is basic, and most of the acting isn’t very strong. It didn’t appeal to us too much.
Spoilery Synopsis
In 1959, in British Columbia, a man on a mountain hears roaring off in the distance and tries to climb down to escape the thing, which pulls his rope right back up again. He falls. Back in Washington, DC, the report says the mission failed, but they will continue to monitor the area. They will recruit more assets. Credits roll.
In the modern day, much more modern mountain climbers scale the face of a vertical mountain. When they come down, they hear that the “Forbidden Wall” has just been opened after fifty years.
We cut to Kurt and Sean talking over Facetime about making the climb, which’ll be tough, but doable. Sean’s father Conner doesn’t approve; Connor’s own father was the man who died in the pre-credit sequence. Sean explains that he doesn’t really have a choice– he has to do the climb. They wonder why the tribe is allowing access now, all of a sudden, and why only certain people were invited to climb.
Sean drives to the base of the mountain and meets the other climbers. Colton is there, and he’s happy with the weather; he knows this is going to be hard and strange for Sean. No one knows why they’re allowed to climb today, but there’s a good chance no one else will be allowed in the future.
Kerrie wants to climb, but Colt won’t allow it; she has to stay on the ground to coordinate. He says she can go on the next climb, if there is one. They’ve got a guy named “Radio” who does the communications and radio. Colt gives the climbers the rules and restrictions for the climb. Chief Guyustees, the leader or the tribe, and he reiterates the rules. Brad, Jesse, Lucky, Justin, Emily, Kristen, Sean, and the others get ready. Everyone knows about Sean’s grandfather, who died on this mountain.
Radio reports that he can’t explain all the static on the radio. The first team of two starts climbing anyway. Sean stays with the ground crew as a backup, and he talks to the Chief that night, “You need to finish what your grandfather couldn’t. I’m not talking about the climb. There’s an evil on top of the rock, trying to escape. The legends talk of an evil that came to our world many years ago. It needs two people to escape.” The Chief wants Sean to go up and seal the creature inside the mountain. “Embrace the quiet in your head, and you can defeat it.”
Lucky tells his life story as the climbers’ tent hangs on the straight side of the mountain. In the morning, the climb continues, and everyone suddenly gets a weird vision or hallucination. The radios stop working completely; they’re being jammed.
Kristen and Brad run into some strangeness. Brad is possessed by the creature, and he climbs the rocks like Spider-Man. He chews through her safety line, but before he can kill her, comes to his senses and falls. Kerrie sends Sean and Justin up to help her. Colton wants to continue the climb, leaving Kristen to the two rescuers. We get a climbing montage.
Almost immediately, Justin hurts himself and has to return to camp, leaving Sean to rescue Kristen alone. Kerrie decides to join them to take charge. Chief Guyustees tells her to rescue Justin but not to go any higher.
Radio gets Brad’s helmet-cam and looks at the footage on there. It shows what Brad did, and it’s very weird. He tells Kerrie and Justin, back in camp now, all of this.
Up high, Kristen tells Sean all about what Brad did to her as they camp for the night. He tells her about the evil entity that the Chief told him about.
Lucky wakes up in the middle of the night, and Emily is gone. No, she’s possessed and pulling his lines out of the cliff face. Sean and Kristen hear a terrible noise that wakes them up. Emily ends up falling as well. Lucky, Colton, and Jess argue about what they just saw. Lucky wants to go down, but Colton refuses to go back down.
Radio sends his information to an expert, Bill, who explains that there was something “attached” to the audio signal that shouldn’t be there. He does some audio magic and now they can hear the creature, “Come to me.” They boost the radio and tell the others they all need to come down; Kerrie and Radio believe the monster story now.
Colton radios Sean and Kristen, the three will still try to complete the climb. They abandon Kristen, who is not happy.
Radio suggests that maybe Colton has been possessed. Up on the top of the mountain, Colton admits he’s working for the Agency. Kirsten finishes the climb, and she’s not acting normally. The three sees a weird glowing rock, a meteorite. Suddenly, Lucky shows up with black eyes and attacks them all. It leaves him and goes into Kristen, who kills Lucky.
Down on the ground, the Chief does a ritual. Up high, the rock glows. Suddenly, two magic Indians appear on the mountaintop and fight Kristen. They lose.
Sean hits the magic rock with the Chief’s magic totem, and everyone falls down. Colton says “It’s not over, they’ll never stop,” and then dies.
Sean and Kristen parachute down from the mountaintop.
In Washington, the government guy gets a call saying the Forbidden Wall is clear now. Sean goes home and his parents are happy he survived. He’s got a crazy story…
Meanwhile, back on the mountain, Colton wakes up, not dead and fully possessed.
Brian’s Commentary
If the creature wants down, why does it keep attacking the climbers? Why not just behave and ride one out?
In the first ten minutes, I was about to comment on the horrible acting and dialogue, and then I noticed that all the people on-screen were actual famous mountain climbers, not actors. That’s actually kinda cool, especially since they didn’t stick around for the whole film. I assume they were also consultants, as all the mountaineering seems very authentic. The first half hour could have been a documentary.
The cinematography was amazing, lots of drone shots and tense side-of-the-mountain climbing. The acting, except for a few of the experienced actors, was all pretty mediocre. A couple of the actors literally phoned in their roles through videoconferencing.
This is a movie for mountaineering fanatics, not horror movie people. If I were into mountain-climbing, I’d probably love this one, but I’m not, and I didn’t.
Kevin’s Commentary
Much of the rock action and scenery was real, with professional athletes involved in the production. This was basically a climbing movie with some horror elements. And when the Chief did his spell to make two magic Indian warriors appear, I wasn’t really on board with it any more – that was just silly. It was okay, but not enough horror to satisfy me.