my brief thoughts on.... 'Vertige aka High Lane'

I praise the French on a regular basis for their expertise in horror filmmaking. I have yet to see one of their films that I didn't like. I recently watched the French survival horror film called 'Vertige aka High Lane'. One part 'The Descent' (in regards to going 'off the beaten path' for adventure storyline) and one part 'Wrong Turn'. However, the comparison to these two other films only goes so far, as 'High Lane' never really got off the ground. It started out strong enough and showed some promise, but the further into into the story I went the less and less I cared what happened. It really pains me to say that because I love the French horror cinema so much. However, I am not going to lie to you about what I saw.... it was only mediocre at best. I mean, any film that starts out heading in one direction and then makes a bit of a left turn suddenly, it better have a good reason for it. I just never saw it here.

The plot from http://www.Netflix.com: "In this French thriller, a mountain climbing trail closed to the rest of civilization becomes a path to adventure and horror for a group of friends who dare to go beyond its barriers. It's not just because they trespassed into forbidden territory or because they're testing the laws of gravity. It's because they're not the only ones willing to push the envelope out there, and their visitor isn't very welcoming at all." That basically sums it up, however the "visitor" is more of an inbred mutant type thing. (see the photo below.)
I really wish this would have been better. The biggest problem is that this territory has been rehashed a lot in the past decade and finding a new story to tell is nearly impossible. And this film only had one inbred mutant guy and he was uninteresting and uninspired. I could've cared less if he was even in the film. As far as I'm concerned, this would have been just as interesting if it was strictly about the friends trying to get back to civilization. Not too mention that the Netflix OnDemand version of the film was dubbed, not subtitled. That always makes foreign films really hard to watch because you focus more on the dubbing than the acting. 'High Lane' did however leave a little bit of a positive impression. I actually gave it a 3 out of 5 rating, even with all the flaws it was still better than a lot of garbage that's out there. I just wish the filmmakers had realized the changes they needed to make before they made this. It could've been a whole lot better.

If you're bored this upcoming Friday and you've seen every other French horror that's out there, give this one a chance. Maybe I'm just jaded about this genre. Perhaps this film is a whole lot better than I'm giving it credit for. It could've been that I was just expecting too much, the French can't always make a winner. Everyone deserves a less than stellar outing every once in a while. Hell, we're all guilty of it once in a while. This review may be my 'less than stellar outing'.... who knows?

if you want something similar, but maybe better: 'Wrong Turn 2', 'The Hills Have Eyes' (2006) and 'The Hills Have Eyes 2' (2007)