Horizon Line feels like a one-line plot stretched into a 90-minute film with lead characters that have negligible chemistry between them and not worth caring much for. The only interesting thing about it is that one-line thread - stuck on a plane with the pilot dead. Josh Campbell and Matthew Stuecken previously wrote 10 Cloverfield Lane, a sci-fi thriller (with undertones of horror) that I enjoyed. But the advantage there was the underlying mystery and the solid lead performances. In the case of Horizon Line, we get neither. Keith David as the pilot who dies early on is the only character that showed some semblance of being likeable. The protagonists, played by Allison Williams and Alexander Dreymon, are total whatevers, without fleshed-out stories (or even a solid verbal reason) to back them up.
This implies that the film completely relies on extracting tension due to their current situation alone (that of manoeuvring a plane to safety without a pilot). There's the fuel outage plot-point that drives most of the (outrageous) decisions and stunts in the film. The plot-point is used purely as a stress-inducing device because the characters can't have a regular conversation between them. The only few times they do, they mouth ridiculous lines like "Omg, that must have hurt so much. I can't believe I just did that!". When the performances lack panache, director Mikael Marcimain only has the technical aspects to retain viewer attention. Many of the green-screen shots embedded with CGI look a little off, especially the ones from the exterior of the plane. It's still a watchable fare; one that ought to be seen and forgotten.
This implies that the film completely relies on extracting tension due to their current situation alone (that of manoeuvring a plane to safety without a pilot). There's the fuel outage plot-point that drives most of the (outrageous) decisions and stunts in the film. The plot-point is used purely as a stress-inducing device because the characters can't have a regular conversation between them. The only few times they do, they mouth ridiculous lines like "Omg, that must have hurt so much. I can't believe I just did that!". When the performances lack panache, director Mikael Marcimain only has the technical aspects to retain viewer attention. Many of the green-screen shots embedded with CGI look a little off, especially the ones from the exterior of the plane. It's still a watchable fare; one that ought to be seen and forgotten.