A year after her husband dies in a mountain climbing accident, former climbing enthusiast, Becky Connor, is struggling to get back on track. All she can think about is her husband’s death, and her day-to-day life has become somewhat meaningless.

Concerned about her friend’s mental health, Becky’s best pal, Shiloh Hunter, suggests they get back in the harness as soon as possible. She believes the best way for Becky to come to terms with the accident is by climbing another structure.

The structure in question is the B67 TV tower – a remote signal tower, which ‘Hunter’ claims was once the highest manmade structure in the US (now the fourth highest). The abandoned tower is located in the middle of the desert, somewhere off the beaten track, and is old, rusty, and stretches high into the sky.

The plan is to climb the tower’s in-built ladder system up to the top platform, take a few photos, then scatter Becky’s husband’s ashes into the wind. Along the way, Hunter will document the journey for her social media account, and the pair will do some much-needed bonding.

Once they reach the top, the girls stick to the plan and release the ashes. But as soon as Becky begins to descend the tower, she encounters a problem and they both find themselves trapped at the summit.

Without food or water, the pair are stuck at the top of the tower where they are exposed to the elements. They then face a race against time to find a way down, but with darkness falling and vultures in the vicinity, things are looking worryingly bleak.

Directed by Scott Man, Fall stars Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The movie arrives in UK cinemas on Friday, having opened in the US back in mid-August.

For those not familiar with Fall, the film is a low-budget picture, with a minimal cast, a minimal setting, and a minimal premise. The majority of the action takes place at the top of the tower, with the two lead characters trying to find a way to survive their treacherous predicament.

Do they make it out alive? Well, you’ll have to watch and find out.

But if you do give it a go, you’ll find Fall to be fairly enjoyable stuff. It has issues, but for the most part it is pretty good.

Now, I’m not entirely sure why the production team went with the title ‘Fall’ for this movie, when surely ‘Two Daft Girls Get Stuck up a Tower’ would have been more apt. After all, this is exactly what this movie is all about, so I feel like a more self-explanatory name would be appropriate here.

I also use the word ‘daft’ in my replacement title, because of course, Becky and Hunter would have to be daft to try and scale an abandoned, rickety old tower in the first place. One look at the structure would be enough to tell anyone it’s a ‘no-go’ death trap, so a touch of stupidity is the only excuse for their actions.

And this is of course the film’s biggest stumbling block – the idea that anyone would be insane enough to put their lives in such danger by climbing a decrepit tower, especially after previously witnessing someone die in a climbing accident. The thought process here is not only stupid, it’s kind of preposterous, but hey, this is Hollywood after all!

However, if you can push beyond the strange logic that exists within this film and just accept that stupid people do stupid things (which sadly, they do), then it’s not difficult to get into this movie. Sure, you’ll find yourself shouting at the screen at various point throughout, often because of its predictable story beats, but you will have some fun along the way.

On the positive side, Fall is pretty tense stuff – palm-sweatingly tense in fact. This is to the film’s credit, and it should be noted that Fall does have the power to make its audience squirm in their seats.  

If you have a fear of heights, you’ve had a bad experience with a climb, or you simply get unnerved by the thought of falling off a ruddy big tower, then you should expect to get a little freaked out when watching this movie. Fall contains some damn good scenes of spectacle, with Becky and Hunter in some tricky situations, and it’s all handled rather well.  

One scene in particular, which involves Hunter descending onto a lower part of the tower, in order to retrieve her lost bag, is enough to give anyone heart palpitations. If you’re on medication or you’re of a nervous disposition, you may want to approach with caution.

It is scenes like this one, as well as one or two others, which help to make Fall what it is. What the movie lacks in story (and common sense), it sure makes up for in the action and drama department, and this does win it a little praise.

Ultimately, Fall is the sort of film that is pretty decent in places and so long as you take it for what it is, and throw yourself into the suspense and thrills, you can have a good time. It is best enjoyed if you switch off your brain and try not to think about it too much.

With Fall arriving at the tail-end of the summer – better known as the dumping ground before the autumn season kicks in – no one should really expect a great deal from this movie, but it does still deliver. It is here to offer some last-minute entertainment before everyone goes back to work, university, college, etc, and that’s fine.

While Fall isn’t the strongest film, it does contain enough nerve-shredding moments to keep things interesting. So, in the grand scheme of things it’s not bad; not bad at all really.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

It’s A Stampede! is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.