Horizon Line is one of those survival movies about people trapped in high-concept, improbably scenarios. This time its people trapped on a small plane but others have been people trapped on a ski lift, in the middle of the ocean, in a shark cage 40 meters down, on a rocky shoal, in an ATM vestibule, etc. Most of these movies aren’t super great but take their idea and try to make the most of it for 90ish minutes.
Horizon Line is about a couple trapped aboard a small plane over the Caribbean after their pilot has a heart attack and dies. They have limited flight experience, perhaps even less common sense, and a whole lot of script armor.
So for a movie like this to work, you have to imagine what you’d do in the same scenario or at least judge what the characters do. If what they do is improbably or unlikely, it can really hurt the movie. But if the film making is good enough, even a silly scenario can work. And this movie has an unlikely number of scenes outside of a tiny airplane and, to its credit, has good enough feeling of suspense to maybe forgive its implausibility. But I do stress maybe. Your tolerance for this stuff will vary…
I’m not championing this one but if you have a fear of flying or a fear of your pilot having a badly-timed heart attack, maybe this is the suspense film for you (or maybe not!). It’s not a terrible film… just one filled with improbabilities that barely holds together with decent suspense editing and some duct tape.
Score: 71