Elevation comes from the producers of A Quiet Place, which is fitting as it’s yet another twist on the formula that A Quiet Place popularised. John Krasinski’s seminal film, which asked, ‘what if you had to stay silent to escape the monsters?’, led to an array of twists on that formula (i.e Bird Box asked ‘what if you had to lose your sight?’) Having apparently run out of senses now, Elevation asks, ‘What if you had to stay really, really high up?’
★★★☆☆
After 95% of humanity was wiped out less than three years ago the remaining 5% live in the mountains above 8,000ft. Anyone who steps below ‘the line’ is in danger of being hunted by reapers, giant insects that mercilessly hunt humans, with near impenetrable armour and stingers that can sense the CO2 the humans breathe.
Our protagonist Will (Anthony Mackie) lives in an isolated community in the Rocky Mountains with his son Hunter (Danny Boyd Jr). Will determines to go below the line when he runs out of the filters that keep his asthmatic son alive. For his mission to Boulder, he recruits Nina (Morena Baccarin), a disillusioned, alcoholic former scientist, who has never quite given up her conviction that the reapers can be killed. Nina has a lab there that may hold the key to killing the reapers once and for all. Also joining them is Katie (Maddie Hasson), Will’s best friend and hunting buddy.
For a concept-based sci fi movie, the most original part of the film is probably the dynamic between these three characters. Nina is reluctant to join Will on his ‘suicide mission’ because she took a similar expedition the year prior. Fuelled by the belief she could kill the reapers, Nina led an expedition that got most of its participants killed—including Tara, Will’s wife and Katie’s best friend. Considering Nina to have been a reckless wannabe hero, both Will and Katie harbour a deep-seated resentment of the scientist. Now, though, circumstances have backed Will into taking a similar risk, cajoling Nina into an equally dangerous plan while maybe underplaying the risks.
This is an interesting dynamic to work with, and it’s a shame that the film’s clunky dialogue doesn’t do more with it. In a similar vein, there are definitely big themes at play here, particularly the cost of survival and the importance of parenthood, but they don’t get much exploration either.
The core trio of Mackie, Baccarin and Hasson all put in decent performances, especially Baccarin. Nina’s character is an archetype rarely written for women, and Baccarin, who has often been relegated to the role of ‘beautiful girlfriend’, feels like she’s relishing the opportunity to play the hard-as-nails, washed-up, guilt-ridden scientist.
However, as good as Baccarin is as Nina, she can’t really sell the silly science talk she’s saddled with. Nina is a ‘physicist’, which as with all cheap sci-fi movies seems to be a catch-all title for the explanation of random exposition and nonsense science.
The grounded naturalistic look that illuminates the beautiful Colorado landscapes clashes with these basic low rent sci-fi elements. The cheap-looking reapers are especially visually and narratively underwhelming big bads. Their design isn’t particularly unique or exciting and based on the VFX the film would likely have been better off concealing its monster for as long as possible.
The plot and action are serviceable but there’s no deeper tension or excitement. We’re carried from A to B without ever really learning anything deeper about our characters or even enjoying a particularly exciting action sequence. Elevation does its best to stretch its high-altitude premise with sequences involving ski lifts and mine tunnels, but inevitably there’s not that much tension or terror to be milked out of ‘we have to stay 8000ft above sea level’. This becomes glaringly apparent in one climatic scene consisting of Mackie running up a slight incline.
The Verdict
With a loose gimmick and not much further depth, Elevation is an inoffensive but underwhelming entry into the concept-based horror/action genre. Like many wannabe franchises, Elevation ends on a sequel tease—but this franchise is unlikely to be a lucrative one.
Elevation is now streaming on Prime Video
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