![]() ![]() Notably, even the devil, who typically dwells in a very hot climate, comments on how warm Walter Bedeker keeps his room! The one opportunity to nullify the agreement is an “escape clause” wherein Walter may summon the devil to kill him. Walter, being a vain man, makes one condition –that he not age like a “prune.” The devil laughs and agrees as they sign the compact. Cadwallader offers Walter Bedeker the opportunity to become immortal in exchange for his soul. He is the personification of the devil (played by Thomas Gomez). Cadwallader” (a name that bears striking similarity to a 7th century Welsh king), or at least that is the name he goes by today. When his wife leaves the room, a strange overweight man appears beside his bed named “Mr. We first encounter his disagreeable personality as he yells at a doctor, calling him a “quack.” Walter is a hypochondriac, believing even the slightest breeze through a window might kill him. Walter Bedeker (played by David Wayne) is a fearful man who spends his days in bed, bossing around his wife, terrified of contracting various diseases. In this case, our protagonist-hypochondriac trades his soul to overcome his fear of death, only to discover the true vanity of living an immortal life. While at times it feels more akin to a technical marvel than anything else, there’s no denying the innate terror as the camera pans down, 2,000 feet to the surface.“Escape Clause” is about a Faustian bargain between a paranoid hypochondriac and an amusing incarnation of the devil named Mr. It’s theatrical in scale, cinematic in execution. A combination of high and low-angle shots augment the acrophobia, and Fall is blood-curdlingly efficient at igniting terror from a simple shot toward the ground. Luckily, there is enough Final Destination teases of quivering cords and quaking ladder rungs to compensate for two myopic leads.Īnd that, truly, is where Fall finds its spark. Yet, Mann and Frank insist on peripherally adding to the already perilous scenario with a bevy of bad decisions. The organic dangers both face should have been sufficient. Here, it’s compounded scene to scene, beat to beat. Suspension of disbelief is par for the course in any survival horror movie. Additionally, given the structural decay of the tower, it’s incredulous that two experienced climbers wouldn’t take even a moment to inspect whether it can hold up to serious ascension (spoiler: it cannot). Not even Jeffrey Dean Morgan, playing Becky’s woebegone father, knows. Neither tells anyone where they’re going. Less so are the dozen other mistakes even a non-climber like myself could see.Įven without the vantage point of being 2,000 feet in the air, something is amiss. Yet, in broad terms, the top rope technique Becky and Hunter make use of appears to be mechanically sound. There are early bits of foreshadowing-circling vultures, loose screws-and while they successfully compound the tension given the foregone conclusion (both Becky and Hunter will find themselves trapped atop it), narrative contrivances stand to undermine Mann’s navigation of a surefire premise. It’s tall, really tall, and Mann takes perverse, effective pleasure in framing it for all it is. The tower itself, an imposing behemoth, turns stomachs before either character starts their climb. Becky has cultivated her grief over Dan’s death into a semi-successful social media following. Becky agrees to climb with best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner, Halloween, Starfish), a plucky daredevil. Where characters falter and logic dissolves, high-concept plotting keeps things moving swiftly. Fall, his first major release in over a decade, coasts by on similar merits. Scott Mann previously helmed The Tournament, a similarly high-concept yarn involving dangerous assassins duking it out for their lives. Yet, for all its posturing otherwise, Fall arrives at a pretty clear, though likely unintentional, message: don’t climb. No one can simply endure freak accidents or precarious predicaments without walking away all the better for it. ![]()
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