Horizon Line

Directed by Mikael Marcimain, Horizon Line follows Allison Williams’ Sara and Alexander Dreymon’s Jackson as they’re forced to fend for themselves aboard a small aircraft after their pilot (Keith David’s Freddy) dies mid-flight. Filmmaker Marcimain, working from a script by Josh Campbell and Matthew Stuecken, delivers a mostly unconvincing thriller that’s rarely able to wholeheartedly (or satisfactorily) exploit the seemingly foolproof setup, as the movie, which kicks off with an almost egregiously lighthearted opening stretch, suffers from a low-rent midsection that’s brimming with forced, artificial-sounding dialogue and a myriad of underwhelming set-pieces – with, in terms of the latter, Marcimain unable to generate the thrills one might’ve anticipated from, for example, a sequence wherein Sara refuels by crawling out onto the wing. Williams and Dreymon’s mostly ineffective work, as well as their total lack of chemistry together, only compounds the terminally uninvolving atmosphere, and although the movie threatens to adopt a far more enthralling vibe in its closing stretch, Horizon Line concludes on a laughably anticlimactic note that ultimately does cement its place as a rather forgettable (and disappointingly half-baked) endeavor.

** out of ****