As a film critic, one of the trickiest gaps to bridge is the one that frequently arises between the quote-unquote “quality” of a given film and one’s actual enjoyment of the same. There is a temptation to present oneself as an authority, to describe in “objective” terms the film’s flaws and merits, and to describe its value in cool, rational terms. But appreciation of film, or any art, isn’t rational, and objectivity in criticism is a flat contradiction in terms. We like what we like, even when what we like flies in the face of what we understand to be “good.” The rationalist in me is aware that The Gorge, the new action-horror hybrid debuting this Valentine’s Day on Apple TV+, is not a great movie, and possibly not even a good movie. But I can’t deny that I had a great time with it, and that I think you probably will too. The challenge, then, is not to rationalize that gap, but to articulate it.
Of course, The Gorge is not about that gap, but an actual gorge, cloaked from Google Maps in an undisclosed Eastern European country, guarded by a pair of watchtowers. Stationed in the western tower is Levi (Miles Teller), a retired Marine sniper of some renown. To the east is Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), a crack Latvian assassin. Between them, shrouded in the mists of the gorge, are a hoard of so-called “hollow men”: shrieking, moss-covered zombie-things who must be contained at all costs. The two gunpersons, airdropped in with little information by shadowy, well-dressed spooks (including Sigourney Weaver, lending her gravitas and genre-cred to yet another scifi flick), are strictly forbidden from communicating with one another… but that’s a tall order when the only human you’re permitted to lay eyes on for a year happens to look exactly like an impossibly attractive movie star of the opposite sex. The star-crossed snipers strike up a flirtatious relationship via whiteboard messages and, inevitably, find a way to bridge the chasm between them for a little international hanky panky. But those hollow men are tenacious, and soon Levi and Drasa are faced with no choice but to descend into the mist-shrouded phantasmagoria of the gorge itself to figure out what, exactly, they’re up against.
In case it isn’t clear from the above description, The Gorge is a very silly movie. In both form and function it frequently resembles a video game, from the waves of increasingly dangerous monsters to the mixed-media exposition dump that explains their origins (when Levi’s predecessor, played by Sope Dirisu, shows him the ropes of his assignment, one half expects a giant “PRESS X” to materialize on screen). The dialog is filled with beats where the characters gravely state the subtext outright. The soundtrack cues, plucked from the record collection presumably left by Drasa’s predecessors, are loud and obvious (I would very much like to know more about the eastern european mercenary who brought a pink vinyl copy of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Cool It Down to the hellmouth outpost). It is, in short, kind of dopey.
But it’s a great kind of dopey. The Gorge is precisely the sort of low-brow, high-concept nonsense for which I am an unabashed sucker. It’s got a sense of humor about itself, but never lapses into winking self-parody or Marvel-style quippery. Its premise is pure pulp, seemingly sprung from the notebook doodles of a lightly baked high school metalhead. The action is legible and suitably thrilling, aided immensely by a typically propulsive score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (a huge get for this sort of film). The monsters are gnarly, and the eerie atmosphere of the gorge itself evokes the warehouse-and-fog-machine settings of the great fantasy films of the 1980s (director Scott Derrickson also helmed Sinister, a minor classic of modern horror). It’s complete schlock– and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
The key to the film’s success, perhaps unsurprisingly, lies in its young leads. Teller, fresh off his turn as Goose the Younger in Top Gun: Maverick, seems to have inherited that film’s throwback machismo, here playing the sort of soulful, poetry-writing soldier of fortune who would be right at home in a vintage Rambosploitation epic. Taylor-Joy, for her part, is simply one of the most wildly charismatic actors working today; when she glances up and makes eye contact with Teller’s binoculars, it’s not hard to understand why he instantly sets to work fashioning a rocket-powered grappling hook zipline. Once the two close the physical distance between them, there is an honest-to-god heat and chemistry to their romance which is lacking in this age of Happy Meal franchise extensions. It is, if nothing else, the most romantic zombie-pit movie you’re likely to see this year.
For all its post-Cold War trappings, it’s probably a stretch to consider The Gorge a political film– but, of course, in these politically fraught times, it’s hard not to read a little something into it. When Levi and Drasa discover that their employers are private contractors rather than government officials, one senses it was intended as a move to depoliticize the proceedings, to transfer blame from the actual powers-that-be to a shadowy, nebulously defined other. But life comes at you fast; in a world where sinister private security forces hired by questionably appointed figures are flexing their muscles against actual heads of state, this twist has the strange effect of making the threat more real and topical. Am I saying Elon Musk is harboring a super-secret gorge filled with horrifyingly twisted zombie-soldiers? No– mostly because that would imply some level of actual scientific expertise– but it seems like exactly the sort of weird shit that could pop up in our headlines in the year of our lord 2025.
In short, The Gorge, while far from perfect, is pretty close to a perfect popcorn film– which is something of a shame, as it is to be contained within the streaming silo of Apple TV+ (unlike similarly large-scale Apple originals, like Napoleon or Killers of the Flower Moon, there are as yet no plans for a theatrical release). Is it a good movie? As a critic, I don’t think I can declare that in good conscience. But it is most certainly a rad movie, and as someone who likes big, dumb, lightly subversive spookshows I can give it my wholehearted recommendation. Not everything needs to be Criterion-worthy; sometimes, you just need to watch pretty people blow the heads off a bunch of tree-zombies.
The Gorge
2025
dir. Scott Derrickson
127 min.
Streaming on Apple TV+ beginning Friday, 2/14
