It’s a cool premise. Two elite sniper guard a gorge. They are forbidden to interact. What danger lurks deep down in the gorge is a mystery.

They do interact and establish the kind of intimacy we all secretely or not so secretly long for.

And then?

It’s all completely ruined.

Why?

They show you the monster.

All fear becomes a soundless, stinky fart.

The monster is a purely physical menace.

That doesn’t scare any viewer.

Real terror is the kind that gets into our psyche, starts messing with our desires, our needs, our wounds, our longings. A threat that is purely physical doesn’t get under our skin. It’s flat.

Result?

Explosions and fight scenes you might as well skip.

Real terror slips into our operating system, it doesn’t seek to physically destroy us.

Crossing a busy street is a more menacing experience than watching a horror movie where the monster is revealed and is mostly just a physical threat.

Add to that that a lot doesn’t make much sense. The snipers are sent by almost all powerful entities, yet they somehow get a lot of freedom to go against those all powerful entities.

Why do I say it is predator system propaganda?

I’d have to explain, again, what the predator system is. But you can guess it from why I say this movie is predator system propaganda.

– mourning a loved one is reduced to a good cry and a fuck
– a suicide is plugged like changing the channel on a tv. ‘it will be a welcome change’
– the snipers have no higher mission, they are good at something and so they market their talent
– there are no real traumas here, no real flaws, both characters are a Mary Sue type character, there is no dirt on these people
– sipping alcohol is painted as cool, classy, a welcome relief to keep showing up at work (which is exactly alcohol’s role in our society, in the predator system we suffer in)
– and when life betrays you? You can have your cosy instagrammable escape route: a little restaurant in the south of France

The Gorge has everything the predator system wants you to do, think, believe, seek out, fear…

Be competent, chill, treat yourself to some cheap dopamine, establish some intimacy with whomever happens to be close, enter an arena that seems risky, but barely is, be vulnerable when there is no real price to pay for intimacy. The characters can choose each other without there being skeletons in the closest. They’re both so great that they don’t risk hurting themselves by loving the other.

It’s an IV drip for the zombies populating our nation of…
scroll + sugar + porn + playlist + mask of compentence + surface level intimacy + alcohol or other forms of sedation + vague dream of an escape plan if things go too sour.

Am I getting through to you?

So the only thing that makes this movie bearable is the acting of the two snipers. Initially there is a bit of a real spark between them.

To hear the Ramones used/abused in a predator system movie is a bittersweet experience.

Let me ask you this:

Are you after sedation or are you after ignition?