Fall 2

In the tradition of the vertigo-inducing survivalism of Vertical Limit or 127 Hours, Fall 2: Deadpoint delivers more dizzying highs and the prospect of terrifying lows. While the 2022 indie hit is a tough act to follow, Fall 2 manages to bring similar high-octane action, albeit while grappling to match the impact of its predecessor.

After her influencer sister, Shiloh, plunged to her death in the previous film, Jax (Harriet Slater) wants to remain grounded – quite literally – leading a quiet life and quickly dispensing of Shiloh’s possessions. One such possession is a scrapbook in which Shiloh chronicled her increasingly outlandish daredevil dreams. Shiloh’s friend, Luce (Arsema Thomas), thumbs through its pages and ponders her late pal’s unrealised dreams. This prompts her to convince Jax to join her in fulfilling one of Shiloh’s most audacious stunts: climbing the gargantuan natural wonder of Mount Kwan in Thailand. It’s an illegal endeavour, so the pair are joined by the mysterious John (Tom Brittney) to guide them along the mountain’s terrifying plank walk.

In the inescapable streaming age, Fall 2 is a film made for the big screen. The Spierig Brothers waste no time in conveying the magnitude of the women’s undertaking, replete with a foreboding horror score as the camera pans across the mist-engulfed rocks. A pointed critique of influencer culture, writers Scott Mann – who directed the first film – and Jonathan Frank contrast the seemingly honourable intentions of Jax and Luce with those of Shiloh, who sought the gratifying thrill of her stunts as much as the ensuing social media validation. Slater and Thomas do a fantastic job of illustrating this.

All this, however, doesn’t remedy the fact that so much of the film resembles survivalist psychological torture porn. It plays off the women’s fear and impending doom via protracted shots of their bodily contortions, making for uncomfortable viewing at times. The peril of John is not depicted in this same manner. Moreover, much of the original film’s appeal lay in its low-budget charm, so turning Fall into a franchise (as is heavily implied) in an increasingly IP-reliant industry strips some of that allure. But this direction does lead to multiple twists and turns, which make the movie irresistibly moreish.

Fall 2 is by no means a groundbreaking or even necessary sequel, but it delivers an edge-of-the-seat, adrenaline-fuelled viewing experience. And its scope is, undeniably, magnetic on the big screen.

Antonia Georgiou

Fall 2 is released nationwide on 9^th September 2026.

Watch the trailer for Fall 2 here: