High Lane (2009)

Poorly acted, poorly directed and as has been stated, poorly dubbed, this movie is a knock-off of a host of previously filmed movies jammed into one. Let's see, here is your plot. (I suppose this is the spoiler alert if you will) Young adults head off into the woods for a mere 3 hour rock climb that turns into much more than they bargained as they are tormented by some mountain man that eventually picks off all the poor defenseless (albeit stupid) young adults. Sounds like it has been done before? That's because it is pretty much the same premise as most other bad horror or suspense films. It even tries to pull off a certain type of "Blair Witch" ending as if any of us are going to believe there is even a hint of realism or truth behind the film. If you think of this as a B horror film that is maybe 1 to 1-1/2 stars, then you won't be misled. If you are expecting an intelligent and interesting thriller of the 3-4 star range, you will be sorely disappointed.

This movie started off excellent. The shots of the mountains and the beauty of nature shown through that first half of the film was just amazing and breath taking !! This movie has one of my favorite French actors Johan Libereau (Loic- or Luke)and the movie started out exciting, fresh, full of adventure, and was thrilling keeping me wanting more. When the leader (Fred) got caught in a bear trap I was tense with excitement, and wondered what they would do next. Then it went down hill right after that, and it just plummeted. I quite caring about the movie about 2 minutes after Fred got dragged away. It went from a great cinematic French experience (despite the terrible English dubbing) to a terrible wannabe-American-terrible C rate horror film. Loic became really annoying and whinny, ruining the talents of Johan (Les Temoins,Douches Froides,Q,and Un Coeur Simple). The flashbacks of Chloe and Im assuming her brother or former patient didn't match with the storyline in my opinion. Did I mention that the version I watched had terrible English dubbing ? The killer wasn't scary or intimidating, and the deaths the cast experience are ridiculous, especially Loic's and Karines. This movie goes from epic to worthless in a 3 minute span, I would suggest only watching the first half and not disappointing yourself with the rest.

For the first half of the movie it was an interesting and good suspense story, about a group of carefree youthful friends who go on a mountain climbing adventure, and the obstacles they encounter on their more perilous than anticipated day trip. Disregarding that the route they want to climb is closed, they boldly and perhaps foolishly, go on and start their climb.This is where the movie is well done, with breathtaking and scary camera shots of the ground far below as they make their way across thin precarious ledges on the mountainside and the sense of danger is prominent and sustained, until finally they end up at a rickety and dangerous looking rope bridge they must cross. All this is interesting to watch, especially for those who like outdoors adventures, added to this is a character who is more timid than the others in the group and is scared of heights, who has troubles navigating these perils which adds more tension to these scenes.However, after they cross the rope bridge, which ends up being a thrilling and tense scene, the movie turns into a stupid generic horror film of a backwoods crazed maniac who lives on the mountain and he begins to hunt them down. The killer is not scary at all, and played by a guy who looks like some goof ball lumberjack and its quite disappointing when he is revealed. The characters also start to make really dumb decisions as is typical in horror movies, and basically the entire second half of the movie is a total dud, and can be skipped without missing anything good.So I think this movie is actually worth seeing for the first half alone, which was surprisingly gripping when it involved the human drama of navigating a difficult mountain climb.

The teenagers Fred (Nicolas Giraud), his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler) and their friends Chloe (Fanny Valette), William (Raphaël Lenglet) e Luke (Johan Libéreau) travel to Croatia to climb and hike along the day. They find the starting point closed with rocks but the experienced climber Fred convinces the others, including the coward Luke that has a crush on Chloe and wants to be close to her, to cross the tract climbing the mountain. Along their journey, they realize that the trail is more dangerous than they thought: the rope bridge collapses after their crossing and the handle in the mountain is busted. Fred climbs with Karine to help their friends but he is wounded in a bear trap. Karine uses a rope to bring their friends to the top, but they do not find Fred that has disappeared. When Chloe falls in a hole with a trap, they question what do people hunt in that isolated spot. When they discover the truth, their entertainment turns into a fight to survive."Vertige" has a breathless beginning with the adventure of the group of five friends in the Balkans. In the first half of this movie, the plot is very tense and I do not know how far the actors and actresses have climbed or crossed the rope bridge in times of CGI, but the result is effective with excellent scenes and camera work and I was nervous with the situation of the poor guys. Unfortunately the second part of the story is a violent collection of clichés "à la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and many other sub-products of the slash genre. Luke is an annoying character and the final decision of Chloe with the fate of Anton is simply ridiculous. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Vertigem" ("Vertigo")