The Free Fall

Grimmfest 2021

Hard to comment without giving it away and honestly, you deserve to go into this one cold and experience it yourself.

For the most part, an urban spin on a Daphne DuMaurier style gaslighting tale. We can tell things ain't right but we don't know why or how.

The three leads play it straight - Ashmore and the stunning Ms Lando are more than watchable throughout.

Then, it careers into its final act and it has to be seen to be believed...

Critic proof - a sure fire future cult classic.

I liked the twist at the end...it was a clever and unique twist, however the journey to get there was a painful one. A storyline like this needs more finesse, better actors, intricate detailing etc. This film did not posses those qualities unfortunately. A shame as it had such potential.

Simplistic idea for a film presented in the convoluted nature of amnesia. The film takes slight chances with production leaving much to be desired with the confusion and tension that it needed to be suspenseful. Instead, the musings of what is true were uninspired images that ultimately felt heavy handed. Acting was decent so it wasn't a complete waste. Overall, the way that the plot toyed with us didn't lead to much. And the potential twist at the end wasn't very imaginative. Lackluster effort overall that didn't create much magic in the end. Had potential but something didn't quite blend together for something better.

Bottom line: Free Fall was a fine watch, but the writing was pretty frustrating, and it didn't come together as well as I'd like. I think it was worth the watch for the imagery, but ultimately it was an unsatisfying film.

Free Fall is a little tough to review. I think the writing and pacing would ultimately be a 3/10, but the imagery and general idea would be around a 6/10. At the end of the day, there is enough memorable moments that I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think there was enough for me to really recommend it.

The dialogue and general writing was really poor and often very frustrating. The pace was very slow and repetitive. They ramp up really fast and then just kind of plateau for too long before moving into the final act. It was engaging for a while, but then they stop giving any new information and just repeat the same sorts of scenes a handful of times so you just want it to move on and get to the point.

The imagery was pretty intense though. There are some serious gory scenes, some really weird stuff I liked a lot, and some artistic moments. Similarly, the story and idea were actually pretty good, and the twist was fun.

While I liked the twist, I don't think it was a particularly surprising, or done quite as well as it could have been. I think you're ability to figure it out might effect your overall view of the movie since a lot of the positive reviews seem to find it mind-blowing, but it was one of a few possible endings we all pegged pretty early.

This was an amazing exercise in insanity. A young woman has a melodramatic conversation with her sister right before visiting her parents, then suddenly has a vision of pure horror. She wakes up in bed, suddenly has a husband, can't remember anything, gets weird visits from a bearded guy who might or might not exist.

I burst out laughing at least once every five minutes. Everyone is trying so hard to be serious, and the story is trying so hard to be terrifying, that I could feel the movie collapsing under the weight of its own incoherence. When is this supposed to be taking place? I noticed the rotary phones and the typewriter. Yet there is no sense of setting in the story, the old-fashioned props are just there to make things look gothic. Same with the grandfather clock.

So many times, Sarah would see something or experience something and then wake up, as if it were all a dream - to the point where I had no idea if anything was really happening or not, so I found it impossible to take anything seriously. What difference does it make what happens in this scene? She's just going to wake up again. And then we get so many bizarre shots of Sarah seeing Sarah. A different Sarah? An evil Sarah? A Sarah from the past?

Sarah and her husband have many conversations in this movie. But they do not sound like human conversations. Nick says that he wants to protect Sarah, and Sarah insists that someone is invading the house. Rinse and repeat. There is also the framing device of pig meat - early in the movie we see bacon, and toward the end we get a whole roast pig. Interpret that however you like.

Oh, and the photography. My god. Constant blur effects, and switching back and forth between different visions, to create the sense of confusion. I could feel the director grabbing camera and shouting into it, "THIS IS SCARY! I'M DOING SOME WEIRD THINGS HERE!"

"The Free Fall" is incompetent, preposterous, and insane. If it had been a little more fantastical and done a bit more with practical effects, it could have been another "Troll 2." I know this is a terrible movie, but I was mesmerized. You don't get unintentional hilarity like this just every day.