High Lane (2009)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This french offering doesn't deserve the vitriol spewed at it by some reviewers who couldn't even be bothered watching the entire movie,if you don't watch it all you shouldn't be reviewing it. Some of the scenery shots are spectacular and very well shot and the location just stunning,making it onto my list of places I want to visit.The movie was somewhat cliché'd,but all movies are,I've never seen a completely original movie in 53 years and suspect I never will,however,what it does offer is non stop action and some great acting by Fanny Valette (Chloe) and Justin Blanckaert (Anton),particularly later in the movie during the fight scene,so convincing and vicious I would almost swear these two despised each other in real life.The other three male characters don't deserve much of a mention as they were bland,jealous,lying and murderous characters with nothing redeemable about them.If nothing else you won't be bored watching it unless you want to be a sad armchair critic who is unable to enjoy a movie for picking it to pieces instead of just enjoying it for what it is.

High Lane is set in the Croatian mountains where five friends decide it would be a good idea to spend the day climbing sheer cliff faces & navigating across the hazardous terrain. Experienced climber Fred (Nicolas Giraud) is the main man but he manages to convince his four friends including his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler) to carry on despite the mountain pass being closed & warning signs clearly visible, Fred's friends trust his judgement & decide to ignore the warnings. A few hours into their climb the five get into trouble & things go from bad to worse as Fred is caught in a Bear trap & dragged off by some inbred mutant killer who then goes after the other five teens in a fight for survival in the open wilderness who will win?This French production was directed by Abel Ferry & is best described as some predictable & generic cross between the Sylvester Stallone action flick Cliffhanger (1993) & the backwoods brutality teen slasher Wrong Turn (2003) without being nearly as good as either, shot under the title Vertige this really is & plays out exactly as it sounds. The script is uneven, the first half of High Lane is devoted purely to climbing cliff's & walking across perilous looking bridges & has an adventure film feel about it while the second half of the film switches gears & turns into a teen slasher of the most generic kind with some mountain freak killer stalking & killing the teens off as the rock climbing & adventure angle is totally dropped. With the usual clichéd mix of annoying teen character's & a killer with no motivation or background whatsoever High Lane doesn't have a lot going for it apart from a reasonable pace & one or two nicely shot sequences. Character motivation & behaviour is difficult to understand at times, why did the one guy try to leave the other behind to be killed? Why did the guy let the other go at the end & fall to his death? When Chloe feel down the pit why didn't she shout back up to her friends who were calling down to her? Why ignore all the warnings in the first place? Who was the killer? Why did he kill? Who built his house? Why does he not get a single line of dialogue in the entire film? As you might expect the teens are killed off by their own stupidity & the inbred killer until only one tough female survivor is left before a nothing sort of ending that leaves literally everything up in the air & unresolved. A very unsatisfying end to a very average & predictable teen slasher that tries to wrap itself up in an adventure film but both aspects come across as disappointing & High Lane ends up being neither one thing or another.Filmed on location in Croatia by a French cast & crew this is dubbed & is currently available as a free instant download on Netflix which is the only fate it really deserves as I wouldn't have liked to have spent money on it. There are a couple of decent moments like the rope bridge walk but they are few & far between I'm afraid, the gore is fairly restrained with a leg caught in a Bear trap, a couple of people are shot with arrows, there's a decapitated head & a slit throat but not much else & even the killer is forgettable as he just looks a dirty old man. The scenery & locations are nice to start off with as the makers use lots of sheer cliffs but once the slasher aspect kicks in the action switches to a standard woodland setting.Filmed in full 2:35:1 widescreen this looks nice enough as I have said with decent production values but there's nothing memorable here. The film is badly dubbed throughout so it's hard to judge the acting but I doubt it was great to begin with.High Lane is a throughly predictable, clichéd & uninspired teen slasher that throws in a few unrelated adventure film aspects that end up feeling out of place with the two different genres never gelling into anything particularly enjoyable. Sure it's competent & is't terrible but I can't say I liked it that much. There are much better films out there.

I did not know anything about Vertige before watching it, except for the fact that it was a French horror movie. After having watched the movie, I can say that I found it to be a rehash of various North American movies from the genre, something which is exacerbated by the prefabricated characters and predictable clichés. However, that did not avoid me from being moderately entertained with this film.The part of Vertige dedicated to the mountaineering is well filmed, and I guess that the fans of that sport will find it much more exciting than I did. The Croatian landscapes are so amazing that I would like to visit them only for the views (let's accept it, I even feel vertigo when I am climbing stairs, so the only mountaineering I could do would be from a helicopter). However, when we reach to the top of the mountain, it seems that another movie begins, and we are in front of a typical story about "young people lost in the woods". Nevertheless, the movie kept me moderately entertained as I previously said, mainly because of Abel Ferry's dynamic direction. As for the actors, they did not have too much substantial material to work with, and they do what they can with their roles. In conclusion, I can give Vertige a slight recommendation despite its various fails.

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")