The fear of falling is an elemental one, running contrary to the human desire to conquer heights. Sir Edmund Hillary famously said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” Scott Mann’s 2022 survival thriller, Fall, is built on these opposing human impulses.

In the film, two friends, Shiloh (Virginia Gardner) and Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) decide to climb an abandoned 2,000-foot TV tower. Shiloh climbs all sorts of scary heights to create content for her social media account while Becky agrees to the join her to come to terms with her husband’s death a year before in a trekking accident. After being stranded at the top of the tower for a few days, Becky makes it down alone.

Fall 2: Deadpoint begins with Jax (Harriet Slater) grieving the death of her sister, Shiloh. She meets Shiloh’s friend, Luce (Arsema Thomas), who convinces Jax to accompany her to Thailand for the “plank walk” on Mount Kwan.

The plank walk, inspired by the cliff-side trail on Mount Hua in China, is basically a series of rickety planks circling the mountainside at 4,000 feet (double the height of Fall’s 2,000 foot TV tower) and ending at the scariest, flimsiest bridge over a yawning canyon. At the end of the walk is a statue of a dragon that promises to “eat your fears”.

The two reach Thailand where they meet Jon (Tom Brittney), who after telling them all the things that could go wrong, agrees to take them on the hike. As the trio set out, after an equipment check complete with radios, cans of oxygen for altitude sickness, sturdy ropes and harnesses, we settle down to an icy clutch of dread.

Things rapidly go wrong, with rain, landslides, broken steps and chains. While there is much in the movie that reminds one of Fall, the film is clever enough to keep us off-kilter with the callbacks. The sight of a vulture eating a dead animal reminds you of the earlier film and gets you wondering if someone will soon have to make a meal of the carrion bird.

When a character falls off the trail, you wonder if they are dead, and when they are hauled back you question reality. Are they really saved or is it all survivor’s guilt. While Fall was stark desert with a needle in the sky, Fall 2 is lush greenery and an uncompromising, towering lump of rock.

There are thrills aplenty with planks, safety chains and sundry nuts and bolts coming loose, as the characters make one dubious decision after another. Introducing drug smuggling in the third act dilutes Fall 2: Deadpoint’s pure survival-thriller vibe. Shifting from nature as an implacable foe to human adversaries does the sequel no favours.

Slater and Thomas are completely committed to their roles and are rewarded for their good work with our hearts taking up permanent residency in our throats.

Fall 2: Deadpoint ends with a mention of Hell’s Chasm which is presumably where the third film will be set with Mann returning to directing duties. One only wishes the girls would take a parachute the next time they plan a vertiginous climb.

Fall 2: Deadpoint is currently running in theatres