Valentine's Day is a great holiday for the movies. Whether you're spending it alone or curling up under a blanket with a loved one, there's just something fun about getting cozy and watching a film that suits this holiday perfectly. And if you are going to watch a movie, of course it needs to have some kind of romance in it to suit the day.
But what if you're a sci-fi horror nerd? What if the mere thought of a romance movie makes you cringe and dream of xenomorphs, or long for the latest slasher flick?
Apple TV+ may have the answer. Today, the streamer is releasing The Gorge, the latest film from director Scott Derrickson. Derrickson is a seasoned veteran of the genre movie space, especially when he's working with his longtime producing partner C. Robert Cargill (who serves as a producer on The Gorge); they worked together on The Black Phone, Sinister, and Marvel's Doctor Strange. All three of those movies were excellent, so it should go without saying that if these two are releasing something new for Valentine's Day, it's worth paying attention to.
Early reviews have rolled in for The Gorge, and if I'm being honest they've surprised me in a pleasant way. The movie is about two snipers: an American ex-Marine named Levi (Miles Teller) and a Lithuanian mercenary named Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) who set up in towers standing on opposite sides of a misty canyon which purportedly holds "the gate to hell." We catch just enough of a glimpse of whatever creatures lie in the gorge in the trailer above to know that's not an empty threat; whatever's in there, it looks nasty.
All that sounds like a good set up for a sci-fi monster movie, but The Gorge seemingly has a lot more to it than that. Contact is forbidden between the two snipers, which leads to all sorts of cute scenes like them playing chess via telescope and holding up big cue cards with messages written on them. Then they end up down in the depths of the chasm, and all hopes of holding off contact go out the window.
Reviews for The Gorge seem to especially love the romance between Taylor-Joy and Teller's characters, and how the movie manages to fuse that with the overarching monster plot.
"The premise holds more than a modicum of clever intrigue, blending sci-fi, romance, horror and action-adventure in a slow-burning character study centered on two broken-spirited, sharp-shooting loners protecting the world from evil," writes Courtney Howard for Variety, praising the first 'date' scene. "Teller and Taylor’s chemistry sparks to life, bringing their characters’ intertwined yearning to the forefront as the cyan-tinted moonlight sets the backdrop for the candlelit warmth to delicately dot the frame."
"There’s a bunch of mysteries at hand in director Scott Derrickson’s horror-tinged, playfully amorous creature feature The Gorge...The searing, spot-on chemistry between Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy is not one of them," writes Brian Truitt for USA Today.
Most reviews I've seen seem to take this tack; even when they comment on how the film struggles a little to marry all its disparate elements, they almost always praise the romance. "The action scenes, while tense, struggle against a familiar plot that lacks originality once the monsters emerge," writes Kaitlyn Booth for Bleeding Cool, adding that "Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy shine in their unique dynamic, bringing charm to the film's early romantic focus."
So if you're a sci-fi nerd looking for something to watch this Valentine's Day, The Gorge may be just the ticket. Just make sure to prepare for romance and a journey into a monster-filled canyon. Sounds like one hell of a date, right?
The Gorge is streaming now on Apple TV+.
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