What to watch: New Charlize Theron flick ‘Apex’ thrills

Get your popcorn out and settle into May this weekend with the new Netflix movie Apex. It’s a tense thriller that’s made for cold nights, pancakes, a glass of red wine and a couch cuddle and scare.

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The film stars Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, who play at opposite ends of the narrative. The storyline is linear and kicks off with Theron’s character Sasha and her husband rock climbing a treacherous mountain wall. It’s a sheer drop and stomach churning, even on the screen.

So, when Sasha struggles to reach the summit, the couple decide to pause and continue the climb the next day. During their descent, a sudden storm triggers an avalanche. Tommy, her husband, is knocked unconscious and left hanging from the rope, with Sasha holding his full weight. Unable to maintain her grip, she loses hold and he falls and dies.

Alone in the Aussie wilderness

Fast forward five months, and Sasha’s in the Aussie outback on a road trip. She stops at a national park where she is warned about several recent disappearances in the area. Ignoring the warning, she carries on to a petrol station, where a friendly man named Ben, played by Eagerton, intervenes when she is harassed by some down-under hillbilly-looking types. Ben gives her directions, offering her a choice between an easier and a more difficult route. Sasha chooses the harder path, which later becomes a sub-theme in the narrative.

Sasha travels through the isolated terrain by kayak, where her supplies are stolen and she encounters Ben again. He reveals he has been stalking her and forces her into a deadly game, hunting her with a crossbow.

Injured and on the run, she is eventually captured and taken to a cave where she discovers he has been killing and consuming victims as part of a ritual. It’s also hinted that he packages the balance of the remains as jerky (biltong-ish) and sells it at the petrol station where she first met him.

Theron’s Sasha manages to escape and fights back, leading to a final confrontation during a climb. Saying more would be giving away the plot, which is filled with scary, tense moments.

Watch the trailer

In many ways this movie is a formula. Girl goes hiking, girl gets stalked, girl fights back. Her nemesis, a combination between Hannibal Lecter and Jeffrey Dahmer with a bit of Ed Gein thrown in for good measure. But the fact that it’s not very original doesn’t detract from the entertainment it provides.

Egerton’s Australian accent is not bad, and Theron sticks to her adopted California tongue. The performances are okay, and apparently both actors suffered some serious injuries while filming in the New South Wales nature reserve.

Taron Egerton plays serial killer Ben. Picture Supplied

Apex is not demanding of its audience. Instead, it drives adrenaline and it’s all about the action and the chase and the small victories in between. There are no moments of real emotional depth, and the characters are somewhat flat and unlayered, despite an attempt or two in moments between Sasha and Ben where she tries to explore what appears to be his mommy issues. But the tenderness feels somewhat out of place in the bigger picture and does nothing to deliver uncomfortable audience insights.

Characterisation is a bit thin

Apex is a movie where you’ll feel like a member of the audience. It does not draw you in like, let’s say, The Silence of the Lambs did decades ago. It’s got a Hunger Games feel around the middle of the movie, and time spent in Ben’s lair should have added more emphasis to understanding his motive. It isn’t there.

But having said that, the movie is worth watching because it’s entertaining. Just shape your expectations around action-adventure that skims the surface elsewhere.

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