Why So Blu?

Fall (Blu-ray Review)

August was a pretty wide open month in the summer landscape, with Bullet Train being really the only high profile release at the top of the month (Itself moving to take advantage of the field). We got a lot of more low key genre hopefuls and the like that hope to take advantage of being the only thing around at the time. The horror/thriller Fall, with it high concept (yok yok yok) idea, was one of those that had some decent buzz to it. But, the main story around it seemed to be about its utilization of Deep Fake technology to try and rework dialogue and such to land a PG-13 rating. The film will be available on Blu-ray on October 18th. You can order yourself a copy of the film (and make writer Peter Paras a happy man) when you use the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review.

Film

For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now Becky and Hunter’s expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights in this adrenaline-fueled thriller from the producers of 47 Meters Down.

Minimalist survival horror/thrillers are quite fun when picking the setting or environment is some of the most bang for your buck fun one can have at the movies. From efforts like the original Saw or Phone Booth to stuff like The Shallows, there’s suspense to be found in a human’s struggle to survive, critical thinking skills and big risk chances taken to hopefully get out of their situation. There’s something we like about watching people pushed to mental and physical limits and hopefully making it through in the end. Maybe we’re glad its not us, maybe we are taking notes? Nonetheless, it can be very fun.

Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner play the characters we are subjected to watch struggle atop an old, rusted, 2,000 foot high television tower in the middle of the desert. Director Scott Mann gets so much out of both likeable protagonists here in the effort and they pull off what can’t be an easy task. The script and film however does add some unnecessary fluff and some conflict twists that don’t feel rather necessary and ultimate feel like an a harsh slam on one of the characters to kind of grossly justify a certain aspect the film. Without that detail, its possibly even more effective of a movie and probably an even better one in a tighter 80 minutes as opposed to 105.

Its a weird avenue here with the visual effects in the film. The digital technology to remove the cursing in the film isn’t really noticeable at all. And props to them for building a 100 foot tower to film on and get a good sense of scale for some shots as well as something to help the actors lose themselves in the moment. For the most part, the digital effects are pretty good, but there are many moments when we are “looking down” that the digital backdrop and characters don’t line up via a lighting issue combined with an overall fake zoom call background kind of fashion. You can probably chalk that up to the film being pretty aggressive and wanting to go for it where the time and money probably wasn’t there in post production. Kudos to them for that, it just didn’t pan out and sometimes is akin to “80s local tv weatherman shows us the 7 day forecast” kind of look.

Fall is a pretty solid exercise in survival suspense that is hampered by some unnecessary fluff and digital effects that can’t match the ambition of the creative team. Altogether, it is definitely worth the while and certainly manages to pull off extremely entertaining nail biting sequences with two very capable leads who each could have done this film all on their own if needed be. It works well enough to easily recommend and would make for a great double or triple feature night with other similar trapped in a secluded space survival thrillers of the last 10 years like The Shallows, 127 Hours and 47 Meters down.

Video

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Fall arrives on standard Blu-ray with a nice vivid and bright picture. Its pretty sharp and crisp with a lot of information and detail quite clear and cleanly scene. It is a super digitally shot movie with the blacks looking a little gray and having some crush. There are issues that might have been cleared up utilizing 4K technology, but it also may have made the obvious digital backdrops even more obvious.

Depth:  Depth of field is pretty strong, though the digital effects hamper it a little and you can cleanly see and feel a separation of an actor and a digital background. Motion is smooth and natural with very minimal blur or jitter from a rapid movement or camera swoop.

Black Levels: Blacks tend to struggle in the nighttime sequences. There is a lot of crush and ripple effect off that, which isn’t ideal. Luckily there isn’t really much action for it to hamper in the night sequences, but it has a hard time saturating the sky and in some shots struggles with the stars.

Color Reproduction:  This is a very vivid movie with some nice bold colors. Its a desert and very brown. The girls where some darker but not flamboyant clothing. However, things like the drone and their cell phone cases are nicely colored and provide a little pop.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and texture are clear and discernible in any given shot. No issues from any of the digital face/mouth adjustments as I couldn’t even notice where that stuff was done.

Noise/Artifacts: None

Audio

Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English Descriptive Audio

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: Fall comes with a rock solid 5.1 mix that does its best to simulate the hell the girls are going through in this movie. Its well balanced with good layering and depth. The mix constantly keeps in mind a 360 degree experience and does best to throw you onto that little itty bitty tower.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Bass is here for plenty of the score and some of the more booming moments when things band and fall to effective degrees.

Surround Sound Presentation: This is a pretty nicely rounded experience with wind blowing, crows and more coming from the rear channels consistently. They also pay good attention to the camera movements and hold onto what may not be onscreen anymore. Travel is quite good, effective and accurate between the speakers around the room.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp

Extras

Fall comes with a redeemable digital code.

Audio Commentary

• with Producer/Co-Writer/Director Scott Mann and Producer James Harris

Madison Beer “I Have Never Felt So Alive” from the Feature Film FALL (HD, 3:25) – They couldn’t have just called it “music video”, but hey, that’s what this is.

FALL: The Making Of (HD, 15:42) – This is a pretty solid making of featurette that, while based on promoting the film, it does a fair share of no-spoilers reflection on it with good insight to all the details (building the set, shooting, deep faking the dialogue in parts) that made this one happen.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:28)

Summary

Fall is a pretty decent little thriller that needs to be admired for its ambition even if it comes up short in some areas (visually). The Blu-ray release from Lionsgate has a pretty clean and crisp picture, though it struggles with black levels during night sequences, especially when a CG backdrop is put in. Audio is absolutely fine and well above average. Extras are pretty tight and good as well. Definitely one to rent if you haven’t seen before purchasing.

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