‘The Gorge’ Review: Scott Derrickson Directs A Charming Action/Horror/Romance Hybrid
This Valentine’s Day, Apple TV+ and director Scott Derrickson are bringing you the weirdest, and perhaps the most charming, genre hybrid of 2025 with The Gorge. It’s a story that on paper, seems too bizarre to work. And yet, between an earnest script from Zach Dean and Derrickson’s keen eye for horror and emotional beats, The Gorge works as a fascinating melding of action, horror, science-fiction, and romance in a film perfect to watch curled up with your Valentine.
Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy play Levi and Drasa (respectively), elite snipers on assignment to stay watch in giant concrete watch towers on either side of a massive gorge. They’re forbidden to interact and must stop anything from coming out of the gorge. But these two rebels love to break the rules and start interacting with giant whiteboards and binoculars. They’re lone wolves and yet, they seem to have found love in a hopeless place.
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That hopeless place involves a massive, fog-filled gorge that sometimes spews otherworldly creatures. And when those creatures decide to try and escape, there are plenty of guns and bombs to help take care of the problem. While much of the action is loaded into the film’s back half, Derrickson teases enough at the film’s beginning to keep you hungry for more.
The first half of The Gorge (which drags on for a few minutes too long) is dedicated to building the relationship between Levi and Drasa, trying to make their relationship feel more believable even within such a fantastical setting/situation. And to the film’s credit, it does commit to that budding romance to make it feel like more than an afterthought to the action/horror elements. I appreciate committing to that bit instead of ignoring it and trying to strike that balance in this type of movie is no easy task. So I applaud what both the script and Derrickson achieve here, even if it’s not wholly successful when it comes to pacing.
While the film’s marketing focuses on the romance of The Gorge, Derrickson lets his horror flag fly with the designs of the things that wait inside the titular gorge. No spoilers here, I promise, but this is definitely a film that rewards patient viewers with an action-packed second half that never slows down once it gets going.
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Propelling all of this forward is the electric chemistry between Teller and Taylor-Joy as our elite snipers who happen to fall in love while on top-secret government missions that forbid them from speaking. The playfulness between the two, even when separated by the gorge, is charming and sweet, tender in surprising ways you wouldn’t expect in a film about people who kill for a living. And as the film goes to weird and shocking places, that chemistry only grows as they must rely on each other for survival.
And lest we forget The Gorge boasts a gorgeous score by none other than Trent Reznor and Atticus Rose. Their electronic soundscapes soar with each emotional beat and tonal shift, becoming almost like a sonic Virgil guiding us through the highs and lows of Levi and Drasa’s relationship.
Overall, The Gorge is a lot of fun. It’s not a film that wants you to take it incredibly seriously—it’s meant to be fun in the way a romantic action film can be. The dialogue can be cheesy and the romance is of course wildly unbelievable. But really? Who cares. It’s a glorious piece of escapism that we all could use in this day and age. Despite a first act that drags on a bit too long, The Gorge is another hit for Apple TV+ and a great experiment in melding genres into one fun concoction.
The Gorge comes exclusively to Apple TV+ on February 14, 2025.
Summary
The Gorge is a glorious piece of escapism that we all could use in this day and age.
