Summit is a movie that tells a pretty
simple story: 5 college friends head off to what is supposed to be a
getaway ski trip but end up arriving at the wrong place, an old
abandoned farm house in the middle of nowhere. Throughout the review
I will leave out a couple key plot points because they could be seen
as spoilers. I will just say the group gets stranded at the house for
longer than they anticipate.
Other than a well written dialogue
filled scene in the very beginning, Summit is a solid character
driven horror with relationships between the group explored through
conversation and actions and not direct, out of place, awkward
sounding exposition. The group of friends is like a group out of
Friday the 13th stopping at Camp Crystal Lake, except it's
not as simple as a masked maniac chasing them down and killing them
one by one. When they arrive at the abandoned house in the middle of
the night and decide to investigate, they come to the conclusion that
the GPS must be broken. With nowhere to go and not being sure where
they are, the group decides to stay in the old house and try to find
something nearby in the morning when it is light outside.
We learn early on that one character is
a bit of a practical joker and this character insight helps the
tension when the group is walking through the house at night to
ensure there is no one in it. The audience expects a boo scare or a
joke and although we do get one, it is early on in the scene and a
minor moment. After that we expect a fake scream, a door to slam, or
a loud bang all in the name of a joke but it never happens. The
audience is left with several moments of holding their breath as the
group wanders from dark room to dark room with the sounds of their
footsteps on the dusty floors and the opening of creaky doors serving
as the soundtrack. It's a great moment in the film and a promising
performance from the filmmakers for creating such a patiently crafted
and tension building sequence.
The picture itself looked great. The
night scenes were dark with enough lighting to see the actors and the
exterior snow scenes during the day were clear and sharp and not
overexposed. While some of the group were exploring the outside
surroundings of the abandoned house hoping to find a neighboring
house or a road with cars, the endless snow and abundance of dead
trees create a disorienting environment and feeling of never-ending
sameness in terms of landscape. This highly increased the dreadful
feeling of being lost and really added to the 'middle of nowhere'
reality of the film.
This is where a greater horror than a
masked maniac creeps into the group. Terrifying human elements are at
play here as the group struggles to stay together mentally through
exhaustion, fear, and no food or water. Their minds (some more than
others) start to create situations that may or may not be real.
Atmosphere plays a major role, this is a haunted house story without
ghosts. The ghosts are the people inhabiting the house and the
haunting is in their minds. This confused and clouded state combined
with character developments and relationship complications lead to a
boil as things spiral out of control and lead to an ending that could
not have been seen coming at any point in the film yet was slowly
built to from the first few scenes. There's an excellent sense of
character and direction in the writing that held my interest the
entire duration of the movie.
Summit asks what if? What if a group of
people in the modern world got lost and couldn't rely on their modern
conveniences like GPS or cell phones to help them? What if it was
cold with no food or water? What would happen and how would they
survive? Could they survive? I recommend seeing Summit if you are
able to and watching this scenario play out in this well paced
thriller/horror story that demonstrates the fragility and darkness of
the human mind.
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