If you’re scared of heights, it’s probably best you give this Netflix film a miss…
After viewing the suspenseful survival thriller Fall on Netflix, viewers have reported feeling uneasy, with some going as far as to label it the ‘most terrifying’ movie ever.
On the review site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a respectable 79 percent, although it has a 6.4 rating on IMDB, however, that might be due to the fact it’s a pretty hard watch.
The film was co-written by directors Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank, and before the movie’s theatrical debut, Mann stated to RadioTimes.com that he and Frank originally came up with the idea for the movie when they were collaborating on another project.
“The inception of the height idea came about when we were shooting Final Score at a stadium in the UK,” he explained. “We were filming at height, and off camera, we got into this interesting conversation about height and the fear of falling and how that’s inside of all of us, really, and how that can be a great device for a movie.”
Though the plot is fictional, the KXTV Tower in Walnut Grove, California, which serves as the story’s focal point, is completely real. According to Mann, it took the production a while to find the right site.
“I think the key to it was finding these actual towers that exist in America, that exist in the desert there,” he said. “It was just like that is the perfect location, the perfect kind of character to be at the centre of this nutty thing.”
He added: “We scoured all around California, and it was during COVID, so we’d just drive and drive and drive to these random remote locations, to try and get access. A lot of them had kind of radio masts and things at the top of these mountains and you’re just finding the right kind of top of a mountain with the right cliff and the right sunlight positioning.”
The main characters of Fall are friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), who ascend a 2,000-foot (610-meter) radio tower to disperse the ashes of Becky’s husband Dan, who perished after losing his footing while attempting to climb a large rock wall.
They later become stranded because the ladder they used to climb the tower collapses, leaving them stuck at the top.
But it only gets worse from there, as the bag with their supplies slips just out of reach, and neither one of them can get a signal, making it impossible to call for help.
When the movie first hit the streaming site, Netflix’s Twitter account warned: “Almost every single shot from Fall (2022) – a film about two women who get stranded after climbing to the top of a 2000ft radio tower – will make you feel a bit wobbly.”
And it seems that’s exactly what viewers are reporting, one wrote: “Fall on Netflix is one of the most terrifying films I’ve seen in my entire life and I love horror. No blood, no gore, just horrific anxiety throughout watching those two girls try and survive. It’s just awful. A one-time-only watch as my palms are now sweating!”
While another wrote: “I’ve always found it difficult to describe my random fear/anxiety of heights, tall objects, and large open spaces from above. Fall on Netflix is basically it, my hands were sweaty and vertigo kicked in just watching it.”
A third said: “I was looking forward to watching this. but didn’t realise just how scared of heights I am. It’s my own silly fault I now feel sick and a bit shaky. I’d have been terrified up there.”
