Psychological horrors always present an enticing prospect to viewers. The mystery of watching a character not knowing whether what they are seeing and experiencing reflects reality offers an interesting journey. Witnessing the descent of a mind into madness and despair is, for some reason, compelling and filmmakers seem equally seduced by the set-up with an abundance of films that explore this phenomenon materialising each year. With so many such films in the world, it can sometimes be confusing trying to work out which of them are worth watching. The Free Fall strongly aligns itself onto the ‘worth a watch list’, although at first glance this isn’t necessarily the case.
Sara (Andrea Londo) awakens with little-to-no memory of her life, including her husband Nick (Shawn Ashmore). She is informed that she has struggled with the death of her parents and ultimately attempted to take her own life. Worried for his wife, Nick insists that Sara rests up and allows herself time to heal, but whilst surrounded by strangers in an environment that feels alien to her, Sara can’t connect to her former self she has been told about. As time passes, Nick becomes increasingly more overbearing and Sara starts to question whether anything she has been told is true.
The Free Fall has a premise that reads the same as many others within the subgenre, and for the majority of its runtime it initially presents itself as harmless fodder, but then it pivots in an interesting direction. The new avenue opened up is an exciting one that rewards the patience of those who have sat through the more typical aspects of the story. This fresh direction opens up an ingenious take on established conventions and story-telling methods, and has us intrigued to see future works from both director Adam Stilwell and writer Kent Harper.
Before The Free Fall arrives at its deviation point, there is still plenty of meat to get stuck into. The interplay between Londo and Ashmore works well at setting up the dynamic between them. To begin with, Londo doesn’t have a huge amount to do other than creep around the house and feel sorry for herself. Eventually the character of Sara comes into her own and the second half of the story gives her more to play with. Ashmore is the epitome of Creepy McCreepy as Nick who is a suffocating presence. He is constantly flitting around Sara, imploring her to get better whilst never giving her the chance. His actions and demeanor instantly prickle the audience’s mistrust, but the intentions behind his actions are not quite what one would think. He’s an entirely toxic character, one who is forever gaslighting Sara; add to that his air of pretension and his insistence on sharing a marital bed in spite of him appearing as a complete stranger to his amnesia stricken wife, and he has all the ingredients for a person we all love to hate.
A psychological thriller with heapings of gaslighting and horror, The Free Fall manages the impressive feat of tricking the audience into thinking it is one thing before revealing itself to be something more. The exciting nature of this shift makes any earlier niggles fade into the background, and whilst still not perfect, The Free Fall has a lot of good going for it.
The Free Fall
Summary
Initially presenting itself as familiar genre trash, The Free Fall morphs into a rather exciting story that pushes one of the more familiar horror strands into a new and compelling direction.
The Free Fall was reviewed at Grimmfest 2021.
