Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A group of friends on a climbing vacation ignore warnings that the mountains are closed and start their ascent anyway. Collapsing bridges, bear traps and other dangers threaten to splinter the group… when the real hell begins and an unseen villain begins picking them off one by one.
High Lane is a competent but formulaic French horror-thriller that blends survival climbing tension with a slasher narrative. The mountain setting provides some genuine visual scope and the early climbing sequences are well-shot, but the shift to a deranged-killer plot feels derivative and diminishes the tension built in the first act. The acting is serviceable but undistinguished, the plot follows predictable genre beats, and the ending offers little resolution or surprise. The film earns modest marks for its scenic cinematography but lacks the novelty or craft to distinguish itself from similar wilderness-horror entries.