Movie Review: 'The Gorge' is ridiculous

You could at this point be asking yourself a few questions. If some version of hell was pried open, would we, perhaps, want more than two guards? But if we’re going with two, how likely is it, with ghoulish things sporadically climbing up from the abyss, that they would soon begin a “Love, Actually”-style courtship of holding up signs for each other?

These aren’t quibbles that “The Gorge” has any time for, though. Though the movie’s flow is choppy and occasionally distracted by overly showy camera moves, it zips along and soon enough the two of them are shooting at what you could only call skull spiders. Questionable as the romantic turn is, Taylor-Joy and Teller have convincing chemistry. Plus “The Queen’s Gambit” fans can rejoice at the chance to again see Taylor-Joy play chess, albeit in a slightly different context.

Once we get a decent view of the creatures they’re charged with keeping under control, they appear half tree root, half human, like demon Groots. “The Gorge” is better before our main characters are no longer poised at the mouth of hell but running through the gorge floor. One minute, they’re swaying to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the next they’re being swallowed by an adhesive root system. “The Gorge” is pretty superficial stuff, but perhaps we can await its even shallower sequel, “The Gully.”

“The Gorge,” an Apple Studios release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for intense sequences of violence and action, brief strong language, some suggestive material and thematic elements. Running time: 127 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.