A man seeking life saving necessities for his son enlists the help of two women to journey out of their mountain encampment and into the territory of the dangerous alien creatures who brought about the apocalyptic event that sent them into hiding.
Spoiler Warning: Image in review spoils a major plot point
Post apocalyptic films have been done to death. There’s very little room left for originality after some films and TV shows have essentially done it “best.” But that didn’t stop Elevation from trying its best, and if you ask me, it did a damn good job. While it’s not the most unique film in its story or inciting incident, it’s the execution and performances that makes it a solid entry into the past apocalyptic alien genre. It’s a tightly contained and thrilling journey into an unforgiving world, with characters we care about and an overall arc that takes a chance at being cautiously optimistic instead of serving as yet another reminder of the disgusting hopelessness of humanity in the face of near extinction. Not to mention the creature design is pretty stellar, and it’s also a rare “daytime horror” that preys upon a different level of fear.
That’s not to say it’s perfect. The script by John Glenn, Jacob Roman, and Kenny Ryan suffers from a few plotholes and inconsistencies that are annoying to anyone paying attention. It’s also rather formulaic in its execution, following story beats we all know well, but it still does them in a tautly timed manner. Director George Nolfi has a unique stylization to his visuals, and several scenes were filmed in ways that were so incredibly tense that your legs almost start burning along with the characters on screen. His use of drone shots and expansive viewpoints adds to the feeling of smallness of these characters against the world of the film, and there’s just as much unsettling about the aliens as there is about the isolation.
Anthony Mackie is always wonderful, of course, but his performance here is really something noteworthy. And Morena Baccarin is even more impressive, breaking gender norms and stereotypes to create a truly wonderful female character against a backdrop of a film genre that often mistreats their women. These two craft an incredibly deep and moving world of realism that throws a few curve balls our way with revelations of character backstories. Maddie Hasson is also spectacular, and again adds to a film world in which women are realistic and fully developed, rather than being chronic victims or shrieking damsels in distress.
One thing that really sets Elevation apart is the CGI work. While it doesn’t always look the most realistic, there’s something about the creature design, and how they fit into a world that obviously wasn’t designed for them, that feels unsettling, touching upon an uncanny valley level of design that rattles you to the core. The score by H. Scott Salinas is also perfectly thrilling, and a real highlight is the cinematography work from Shelly Johnson. It isn’t easy to make daytime horror still look frightening, and yet Johnson’s color palette and lighting pulls it off exceptionally well.
Though it doesn’t do a whole lot of new for a tired and overdone genre of film, Elevation is still a solid and entertaining science fiction thriller that’ll stick with you for quite some time.