Downhill (2016)
Howard Gorman
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Starring Natalie Burn, Bryce Draper, Ignacia Allamand, Ariel Levy, Luke Massy
Directed by Patricio Valladares
Screened at FrightFest 2016
A satanic sacrificial worm force-feeding ritual prologue is just the first of many WTF moments audiences can expect in Patricio Valladares’ survival horror Downhill. And whilst Valladares and co-writer Barry Keating go “à bloc” from the starting block to interfuse a chaotic barrage of different genres – resulting in a film that suffers a seriously bad case of personality disorder – the chicaning structure injects the film with ludicrous but ultimately gratifying unpredictability; all of which is buoyed by a vigorous rush of urgent action set pieces – something we seldom get to see of late when it comes to genre movies.
Downhill focuses on downhill biking star Joe (Draper), who very hesitantly agrees to head to Chile to grab his bike by the handlebars once more after the untimely death of his best friend in a freak racing accident. Whilst on a test run with his girlfriend, Stephanie (Burn), they cross paths with an injured man with visible symptoms of a mysterious virus; and things spiral downhill from there on as a cat and mouse game ensues with the “happy” couple becoming human target practice for a band of ruthless killers who’ll do whatever is necessary to keep whatever their secret is from getting out of the mountains.
Valladares’ modest cast is committed and competent, albeit a tad stereotypical, but for the kind of action-cum-horror fare that Downhill is, taking the character-based route would probably have proved pretty self-contradictory. Our femme fatale’s (Burn) screen presence might start out almost as shaky as the GoPro cams at first, but she really does come into her own as the movie progresses, and this reviewer ended up rooting for her to prevail. The fact there are incessant close-ups of her rear end during the first half of the movie had nothing to do with what I just said by the way. I swear. But you’ve been warned: Should anyone choose to play a “spot the tush drinking game” with Downhill, by my calculations you’ll be in an alcoholic coma by around the 30-minute mark.
Whilst Burn’s supporting protagonists also put in praisable turns, particularly Draper, I couldn’t help feeling that more fleshed-out antagonists would have added a bit more sustenance to the flick. Luke Massy’s Alpha Hunter is definitely as imposing as they come, but the most memorable villains in the business tend to be those that overwhelm us with their charisma rather than their physical prowess – something I’m certain Massy is more than capable of delivering on.
You’d never tell this was shot on a shoestring budget either. The practical effects are damned effective, even when things go all kinds of Carpenter and Cronenberg towards the end. And the same praise can be sung for Cristian Ali Venegas’ cinematography, which can best be described as witchcraft considering how complex some of the action scenes are and the fact that all of just two cameras were used during the entire shoot. Lest we forget, Luigi Seviroli’s portentous score amps up the brooding malevolence in them there woods.
Whilst the film’s Lovecraftian/Pagan swan song is condemned to eternally polarize audiences – given the abundance of ambiguities it brings with it – if you, like this reviewer, prefer something a little more perplexing rather than a script that’s a devil for far too many details, chances are you’ll dig what Valladares and Keating have rustled up. Honing in a bit more on the hows and whys would have most likely bagged a few more happy customers, and despite the fact the film doesn’t really break away from the “peloton” of films it unabashedly pays homage to, for the most part Downhill succeeds as a satisfying Cronenbergian body horror-cum-harum-scarum actioner.
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Film
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