High Lane – DVD Review

The Film:

From the opening scene I knew I was going to enjoy High Lane (Vertige). The cinematography in the picture is gorgeous, and elevate this horror-thriller a notch on the kick ass movie ladder. Director Abel Ferry creates a tense atmosphere that is both engaging and disorienting.

The flick follows climbers Loïc (Johan Libéreau), Guillaume (Raphaël Lenglet), Fred (Nicolas Giraud), Karine (Maud Wyler), and the very beautiful Chloé (Fanny Valette) as they decide to brave a trail up high in the mountains that is closed because it is in disrepair. Of course this doesn’t stop these young hotshots from ignoring the warnings. It doesn’t take long for things to go wrong. After avoiding a near fatal accident, and realizing they could be trapped on the mountain until they can find another route down, they start falling into various booby traps, and soon realize that they are not alone. A feral, freak of a man is there with them and he starts knocking them off one by one.

I have to say that these actors were stupendous. Throughout the whole movie I wanted to put my foot in Loïc’s ass, and tape Karine’s mouth shut. These characters were real, they never once seemed fake and served the plot perfectly. But the real star of this flick, besides actress Fanny Valette’s amazing rack, was Anton (Justin Blanckaert) the rabid beast of a man out to make the climbers into a soufflé. Anton was so awesome that I’m hoping someone puts out an action figure based on his character.

High Lane (Vertige) could do for mountain climbing what The Decent did for caving. A positively fun ride into madness that can only be called a killer film.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: IFC Films releases as decent DVD. Picture is adequate enough, but during the night scenes it can get a little murky looking. I don’t know if an HD version would have helped all that much. The audio is really good, especially the French track that has some depth and surround activity. Now, there’s an English dub and it’s horrible. Trust me.

The only extra here is the Trailer, sadly.

The Film: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: