Movie Review – Gorge, The
Principal Cast : Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, William Houston.
Synopsis: Two highly-trained operatives become close after being sent to protect opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. When an evil emerges, they must work together to survive what lies within.
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Renowned horror director Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Sinister) takes us on a mind-bending sci-fi thriller ride with The Gorge, an Apple TV+ feature starring Miles Teller (Whiplash) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga). The film sets up an intriguing romance between two potential lovers separated by an enormous… well, gorge, for much of the runtime. Written by Zach Dean and produced by a stacked roster of industry heavyweights (including Derrickson’s longtime filmmaking partner C. Robert Cargill), The Gorge flirts with romance before plunging headfirst into horror—though it never quite explains itself well enough to overcome the sheer silliness of its premise.
The story follows Levi (Teller) and Drasa (Taylor-Joy), elite snipers from opposing nations assigned to guard opposite sides of a vast, mysterious chasm. Their year-long mission is to prevent anything from emerging from the abyss, which conceals a dark and dangerous secret. Despite orders prohibiting contact, the two develop a bond. But when a malevolent force rises, threatening global chaos, they must work together to contain the terror lurking within the gorge.
As a narrative feature, The Gorge has its share of problems, though style and budget certainly aren’t among them. Derrickson is a master of atmosphere and menace, and this streaming debut is no exception. Whether it’s Doctor Strange‘s dimension-hopping, Sinister‘s skin-prickling terror, or The Day the Earth Stood Still‘s apocalyptic grandeur, Derrickson knows how to craft an immersive, foreboding setting. However, The Gorge stumbles in its execution—the film introduces its world in a rather pedestrian manner, followed by an exposition dump and a predictable turning point that propels the plot forward. It’s competent but formulaic, never quite as inventive as it wants to be.
What isn’t predictable, though, is the genuine chemistry between Teller and Taylor-Joy. Neither Levi nor Drasa are particularly deep characters, but they serve their roles with stoicism and minimal effort. Teller leans into the lone wolf alpha male persona—depressed yet dedicated—while Taylor-Joy’s Drasa is strong, emotionally fractured, and fiercely determined when necessary. These roles don’t exactly stretch their talents, and much of the film’s emotional weight relies on whether you buy into their connection. The problem? The film itself never quite decides whether their bond is physical, emotional, or something else entirely.
The setting is intriguing but not especially complex, and the so-called “secret” of the gorge is laughably absurd. Without spoiling too much, it’s a preposterous World War II-era MacGuffin that had me chuckling at its sheer stupidity. Yet, the film plays everything with such earnestness that you almost—almost—go along with it. Derrickson’s direction and the top-tier visual effects lend a degree of credibility, even if the film struggles with internal logic. The beings that dwell beneath the gorge’s fog—are they ghosts? Mutants? Spirits? The movie never clarifies, leaving their nature frustratingly vague. There are some striking design elements here, though, reminiscent of Sleepy Hollow in certain moments. Still, I often found myself wondering what I was supposed to take away from it all, as the film leans heavily on tropes, convenient geography, and plot contrivances. It’s irritating when characters lose agency to convenient storytelling devices, and The Gorge has plenty of those.
One directorial choice that quickly wears out its welcome is the film’s reliance on a “connection-over-distance” motif. Throughout the early portions of the movie, Levi and Drasa communicate via high-powered binoculars and written notes, bridging the enormous gap between them. The trope where one character “senses” they’re being watched through a telescope and turns to stare directly at the camera is used repeatedly. Once or twice? Fine. But The Gorge hammers it home with such frequency that it becomes unintentionally funny. By the midpoint, the film’s inventiveness runs out of steam, and as the romantic subplot takes a backseat to a relentless onslaught of action, The Gorge morphs into a more conventional thriller. Derrickson handles action well, delivering some genuinely thrilling set pieces with moments of jaw-dropping intensity, and his horror background helps infuse the film with unsettling moments—especially if you watch with the volume cranked up.
Ultimately, The Gorge is an entertaining enough way to kill a couple of hours, provided you don’t think too hard about it. Teller and Taylor-Joy do their best with the material, and their chemistry is strong enough to carry the emotional beats. However, the film’s execution never quite lives up to its intriguing premise, and the sheer volume of plot conveniences is hard to ignore. It’s solid but silly, the kind of movie that works best if you’re willing to just go with the flow. You could do far worse—The Gorge is flawed but fun, and definitely worth a look.
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