The Ledge (2022)

I, like many people, have a healthy fear of heights. Or, perhaps more specifically, a fear of gravity, to paraphrase Terry Pratchett (who said something about the height or fall not being the killer, it’s the impact at the end of your losing battle against gravity). Anyway, The Ledge is a simple thriller that makes good use of a healthy fear of heights/gravity/impact to provide a tight and enjoyable viewing experience. 

Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) and Sophie (Anaïs Parello) are two friends who have a climbing weekend planned. It isn’t just any climbing weekend. There is a special reason for them wanting to climb a certain rock face and prove to themselves that they can do it. Plans change, however, when Sophie meets some nearby men who also have weekend plans in the area. Drinks and fun take precedence, but everything changes when a bad situation takes a turn for the worse, leading to a sudden death. Desperate to cover things up, the remaining group members know that they cannot let one main witness go free. That witness, who caught it all on camera, is Kelly. With seemingly nowhere else to turn, Kelly starts climbing until she finds herself stuck on the titular ledge, enemies waiting for her both above and below.

There is backstory given here, an attempt to add motivation to our main character and build up the potential threat from the clearly very dangerous Joshua (Ben Lamb), but it’s very minimal. Things go from good to bad very quickly, which shifts the focus to the climbing and that haven/deathtrap that is the ledge. Writer Tom Boyle has managed to ease himself into his first solo work, striking a nice balance between the tension and the necessary character interactions that occur in between the thrills and violent acts.

Director Howard J. Ford is the more experienced party behind the camera, and has shown that he can get great results with limited resources (check out The Dead, 2010, but avoid the sequel). Ford manages to make things feel intense and energised, even while many scenes have characters figuring out how to get to one young woman trapped on a ledge, and he does well to include enough convincing climbing footage without highlighting the bits that have to be faked.

Ashworth is a likeable lead, and kudos to her, and everyone else involved, for whatever had to be done at any kind of height that would make me get all trembly (which is generally anything higher than a footstool). She shows grit and determination for most of the movie, and is helped by playing a character who has the wits and skillset to make her continuing survival believable. Lamb is an enjoyable nasty main villain, although he is hampered by the fact that he is written as Obvious Baddie from his very first moment onscreen. Everyone else does fine, but viewers will be waiting patiently for the expected final face-off between the characters played by Ashworth and Lamb, and I don’t think anyone will be left too disappointed by the time the end credits roll.

Although there are few things here that make this truly stand out, The Ledge does well enough on the strength of that core concept. It’s an easy way to create a scenario filled with tension and peril, and both the writer and director manage to make the most of it without making things feel as if plausibility has been stretched beyond its limits. 

7/10

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Prime Time: Exhibit A (2007)

I had this found footage movie recommended to me by a friend. Don't let the same thing happen to you. In fact, just consider how much you really trust your friends.

I am being silly, of course. It was a recommendation I accepted willingly, and with enthusiasm, but I am going to balance things out now by warning others away from what I view as a highly flawed, and disappointing, viewing experience.

Bradley Cole is Andy King, an oddball head of a family unit of four (his wife is Sheila, played by Angela Forrest, his typical teen son is Joe, played by Oliver Lee, and his daughter, Judith, played by Brittany Ashworth). Everything is looking up. Andy is up for a promotion, which means the family will move into a new home, and their finances will receive a nice boost. If all goes well. Meanwhile, Judith is filming everything as she processes some confusing feelings and Andy constantly tests the patience of his loved ones with his constant mugging and attempts to make others laugh, no matter the cost.

Written and directed by Dom Rotheroe, developing an idea by Darren Bender, Exhibit A just doesn't manage to become really interesting or thrilling, and that's due to a number of reasons. First of all, the actual title and imagery used to advertise the film keys viewers in to the fact that something is going to go horribly wrong. Second, the script isn't good enough to distract anyone from the obvious plotting en route to a disappointingly predictable final act. It's also yet another one of these movies that doesn't really give a good enough reason for someone to be using the camera to record every main moment in their life.

Third, and separate from the other two issues, is the varying quality of the acting. Although nobody completely stinks up the screen, nobody feels as natural as they should. Cole is especially jarring, mainly as he is the focus of so many scenes, and has to carry the film on his shoulders, but Ashworth and Lee are hit and miss, while Forrest is the most believable of them all, as the wife who has to be the responsible adult of the household. Even then, however, the script requires her to be more oblivious to some obvious signs of things going amiss than any average person.

It's not a bad idea, especially with the very firm grounding in reality that is there for the first third of the film, but Exhibit A isn't entertaining enough to make up for its failings, and isn't gripping enough to make up for the lack of entertainment.

3/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Crucifixion (2017)

Remember when dangerous demonic entities could just be dangerous demonic entities? That was enough to terrify viewers, and the film often built up to a final battle of wills between a good priest and the dangerous demonic entity. That still happens nowadays, but it has become quite a rarity. Now you need demons to be doing something even more conniving than their usual level of sneakiness, with the preferred end result ranging from showing the world their existence to getting a priest in legal trouble (like it should take a demon to make THAT happen!?!?).

The Crucifixion is another of those kinds of movies I do not view too kindly. A young woman has died. A priest has been designated the guilty party. Then a New York journalist with her own agenda wants to fully investigate the matter, which turns up a couple of details to prove all was not as it seemed.

Considering the talent behind the camera here, the end result is even more disappointing than I initially thought. Director Xavier Gens may have grown a fanbase from his disturbing film, Frontière(s) (one of many that appeared during that French extreme horror peak in the first decade of this century), but I also really like a number of his other movies. I think Hitman is fun (and stars Timothy Olyphant, instant major plus), The Divide is solid, and Cold Skin is wonderfully twisted. Then you have writers Chad and Carey W. Hayes, a duo who have entertained me with films that were released under the Dark Castle banner before helping James Wan kickstart a whole cinematic universe of horror with their script for The Conjuring.

Between them, you can already see that the people who made this film have, subjectively, a pretty impressive body of work. So how the hell they worked together and came up with this tepid and limp distraction is a complete mystery. I guess that they thought they were putting a new spin on the demonic horror subgenre. All they have done is mishandle everything.

Everything may have been improved by the right cast. Sadly, this is not the right cast. Sophie Cookson, playing Nicole (the lead character, the journalist), never seems right for the part. She just feels more like a university student who has decided to throw herself completely into a pet project. Catalin Babliuc looks like a priest who has been through the wringer, which is all he has to do, while Corneliu Ulici is the "sexy priest", handy for providing distracting dream imagery and potential for extra drama. I don't even want to mention anyone else. Nobody stands out.

I am guessing that someone somewhere will like this. I have no idea how, or why, but that is why we can all enjoy the grand variety of movies that are all out there. Personally, I would advise most people to avoid it. It often feels horribly amateurish, mainly because of the inherent script issues, and there are certainly no moments that deliver any tension or actual horror (a strong opening scene aside).

3/10

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