After coming to the aid of a dying sick man in the Chilean mountains, professional cyclist, Joe (Bryce Draper) and girlfriend, Stephanie (Natalie Burn) must flee and hide from the murderous thugs that are hot on his trail. But as the man’s sickness takes hold, his saviours will soon wish they had left him to the wolves…
Downhill is that rare beast that takes its time to fully realise itself. It blends genres, blurs the edges and leaves you with few answers and about a thousand more questions. It leaves some familiar breadcrumbs for you to follow that might seem out of place at first glance, but it’s only trying to ease you into stranger territory than your run-of-the-mill survivor thriller.
Aside from running for their lives, our capable cast is brought face-to-face with some pretty gross body horror, verging on creepy creature feature-esque-ness, presented to them in the guise of a potential medical disaster movie. And they still helped him anyway. Aw…
Initially dividing opinion as well as being criticised by some for being “all over the place”, Downhill’s plot is pretty simple to nail down if you actually watch it…
The special effects are simple but effective – sometimes a little too effective. Though there are a couple of instances that are suspiciously bloodless!
Further to the film’s merit it has more than enough components to maintain both the plot’s momentum and your interest, so why they felt the need to save unnecessarily long takes of GoPro bike riding, not to mention Joe’s weepy Blair Witch-style confessional bit, from the cutting room floor does perplex.
LAST WORDS:
Downhill – a rare beast indeed.