Technically this is not a horror movie, though the premise feels like something from a Brian Lumley novel. By the end, it feels more like something from a video game that mixes "Silent Hill" with "Call of Duty". The acting is really what sells it. Because this is an Apple Plus film, they have severely limited the impact, as it is better than most things I have seen in theaters recently. For Scott Derrickson whose main movies have been horror aside from Doctor Stange, he is branching out and showing how much more he is capable of as a director.
What sells the movie is Anya Taylor Joy, as Miles Teller does his best Jeremy Renner impersonation. I guess Joy is the Black Widow to that, as this could have easily been a Hawkeye / Black Widow movie for Marvel. Miles is however good enough to develop chemistry with Joy. Not that how this develops is really a huge surprise, though how this all goes down displays enough creative sparks to keep the movie fun. I think less would be more even it comes to the monsters. When you learn their origins it has been foreshadowed enough for it to all click, but the strength of this movie is how the visuals unfold when they dive into the gorge, there are many scenes where it looks like the cover of a death metal album, which of course appeals to me.
There was more of a sense of adventure than dread, as the movie turned. The protagonists were always capable and never afraid of their powerlessness even when confronted by un-natural creatures, which sets the tone for an action movie not a horror movie, This might be seen as darker sci-fi as well since science plays heavily into what unfolds, at the end of the day it's story telling with a hear to it that these actors tapped into and suspended your disbelief to invest into these characters , as the world that was so well built;t for them lent itself to further suspending your disbelief which at the end of the day is what movies are supposed to be about.
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