Fall, thepsychological horrorthriller starringShazam!’s Grace Caroline Currey and theBeautifulmovie series' star Virginia Gardner, is a streaming hit.The film has stayed among the most watched films on Hulu, and it shows no signs of stopping its climb to the top. Something pretty ironic, considering the film’s thrilling plot.
Currently sitting in the fifth spot on Hulu’s Top 10 Movies,Fallwas directed byScott Mann, a relatively unknown director who co-wrote it with Jonathan Frank. It stars Currey and Gardner alongsideThe Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan, andScream’s Mason Gooding, as well as Darrell Dennis and Jasper Cole in secondary roles.Fallfollows two friends, Becky and Shiloh, who find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot-tall rusty broadcasting tower, and they can’t find a way to communicate with someone or climb down.
Made for only $3 million,the film was a box office hit, earning well over $21 million, and the reception by critics was also very good. It currently has a 79% score on Rotten Tomatoes on the Tomatometer. The Popcornmeter, aka the audience score, is also 79%.
When it debuted,critics praised the performances of the two leads, who faced the challenge of playing compelling characters with a terribly basic plot(they didn’t accept the participation of stunt doubles and instead did it all themselves). Nevertheless, Currey and Gardner truly shine in the plot that flows into a very unconventionalplot twist. You will be shocked.
The film’s production called for an important decision that Mann foresaw early on: how to add authenticity to the movie without putting the actors at risk and not relying on stunt doubles? At first, green screens were the go-to, butthe filmmakers decided this would look fake. Instead, they built the top of the tower, the tiny space where the women stay, on the top of a mountain. This created enough ofan illusion with wide shots, but at least they were never at risk.
The movie’s success, especially after streaming on Netflix, drew the attention of producers who sawthe potential of making a sequel. In 2023,not one but two sequels were announced, with some of the original cast returning, and they were set to start production during 2024.
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Flawless AI, co-owned by Mann, is a company that specializes in usingdeepfake algorithms to dub media. That’s how they managed to put “freaking” in the actors' mouths and save the entire project. The technology was also used for non-English releases, where the actors “perform” not in other languages but their own. Yet the result appears authentic.
