Horizon Line Review

Horizon Line is a survival thriller about two ordinary people caught in an extraordinary and scary situation. It’s a film that can be described as everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Sara (Allison Williams) is a young woman who goes to Mauritius to attend a friend’s wedding. This is the first time she has returned to the island since she jilted her boyfriend, Jackson (Alexander Dreymon.) This awkwardness gets pushed even further when they go on a pilot dies of a heart attack and the pair have to fly the plane.

Horizon Line was a simple premise where the writers had to think of roadblock that could be faced. There are many examples like in the action genre, such as Speed and Armageddon, to more dramatic films like Gravity, Adrift, and The Aeronauts. Horizon Line does share a lot of similarities with many of the aforementioned films.

Adrift and The Aeronauts were the films that Horizon Line was the alike to. All three films have a male/female dynamic and a potential romance was on the cards. Horizon Line and The Aeronauts were both told a story set over a short time frame. The balloon ride in The Aeronauts took place over 90 minutes and the plane journey in Horizon Line was meant to be from one island to another. Whilst Adrift and Horizon Line were both set in tropical locations.

Horizon Line did have to get creative with the events that happened in the film. Events include the pilot dying, facing a storm, and running out of fuel. Sara and Jackson did have to take some extreme actions to prolong the flight. When Jackson goes outside the plane and Sara said ‘be careful,’ my reaction was the same as his. The film does get so ludicrous that it was unintentionally funny. Some actions could be argued were done because the characters were desperate, but other decisions you end up questioning their train of thought.  As someone who has a fear of heights and dislikes flying, some of the scenarios in the film were utterly terrifying to me.

The filmmakers attempted to give the film an emotional core. The film opens with prologue that showed what happened the relationship and the pair did spend time together which showed there was still a spark and tension between them. But Williams and Dreymon were unconvincing in their roles, both in the drama and the action sequences.

Horizon Line was like a lot of films that were released between the Lockdowns, watchable. There were some thrills to be had but it was a middle of the road offering.