‘The Gorge’ is a B-movie with A-level talent

Making a straight-to-streaming film is a low-risk, low-reward proposition for any filmmaker, especially when the streaming service is still in its relative infancy (i.e., it’s not Netflix).

If the film doesn’t work, it fails quietly, its only legacy being an inconspicuous credit on people’s IMDb pages. The same fate awaits a film that turns out to be good, with all those months of blood and sweat not met with a big box-office haul, only a mention by the CFO at the next quarterly investor call covering subscription growth.

While the television side of Apple TV+ has sporadically graduated from this level with hits like “Ted Lasso,” “Severance,” and “Shrinking,” its straight-to-streaming division remains firmly entrenched in the land of anonymity. The titles of “Fingernails,” “Palmer,” and “Finch” mean nothing to the average movie fan. Despite its exceptional quality, director Scott Derrickson’s “The Gorge” is likely destined to repeat that same fate, falling down a cavernous catalog just as deep and mysterious as the one in the film itself.

The location of this pit is a classified secret, even kept from the guards stationed in separate watchtowers on either side of it. One of them is Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy, sporting a moderately more believable accent compared to her work in “The New Mutants”), your prototypical heartless Russian assassin who dons all black and pulls the trigger without hesitation. The American Levi (Miles Teller) was once like that, but years in the business have made him care too much. What good is an assassin who’s grown a conscience?

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A mysterious private military figure (Sigourney Weaver) believes that the absence of anything giving him a reason to keep living makes him the perfect expendable soldier. Both Levi and Drasa are essentially part of a suicide mission, guarding a cavern that possesses something so evil that the Eastern and Western superpowers have always put aside their Cold War differences and worked together to keep it contained.

What the overlords didn’t consider when they selected their representatives was what happens when you place two very attractive people in the wilderness with nothing to do but get to know each other. Teller and Taylor-Joy pull off the incredibly difficult task of developing a romantic relationship, despite their physical distance initially preventing them from sharing the same frame. They communicate through telescopes and whiteboards and even exchange playful sniper fire in games of one-upmanship.

Derrickson lends his skills well to this twisted meet-cute scenario, creating montages set to energizing needle-drops. None of the song choices could be considered original or fresh, but they’re all incredibly likable and fit the mood.

All this fun almost makes everyone forget that they’re standing above a gateway to hell – until one day when the demons start getting a little too ambitious for their own good. Levi and Drasa are forcibly relocated to the bottom of the gorge, fending off waves of emaciated creatures that have waited for decades for a decent piece of meat to chew on.

Derrickson is a filmmaker best known for his gnarly R-rated features like “Deliver Us from Evil” and “The Black Phone.” One would think that the PG-13 rating here would tie his hands behind his back, but the interesting creature design and expert overall craftsmanship never let that thought occur. I can’t divulge specifics about what the creatures look like or how they came to be, as that’s the central hook, something that the marketers equally valued when they surprisingly kept it a secret in the trailer.

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen, a natural fit for this project considering his years-long relationship with creature feature aficionado Guillermo del Toro, creates an unsettling atmosphere through his colorful use of mist and Cold War aesthetics. The composer duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross accentuates Laustsen’s imagery with their steel-wire score.

For those who have regularly played the Zombies game mode in the “Call of Duty” video game series and have longed for it to be brought to the silver screen, this is your dream come true.

“The Gorge” is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.

Eden Prairie resident Hunter Friesen is a film critic who owns and operates The Cinema Dispatch, a website where he writes reviews, essays, and everything in between. He currently serves as the president of the Minnesota Film Critics Association and travels the globe covering film festivals both big and small. To view his entire body of work, you can visit his website and Instagram.