Scott Derrickson may be known for terrifying films like Sinister and its sequel, The Black Phone, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, but he was able to find a love story within his latest creature feature, The Gorge. Derrickson’s Sinister has often been cited as one of the scariest movies of all time, but his new film, which is coming to Apple TV+ this Valentine’s Day, finds love in its terrifying premise.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller star as two elite snipers, Levi and Drasa, tasked with guarding opposite sides of a mysterious chasm that may be home to unspeakable horror. They are instructed not to interact with each other, but through their scant communications, they slowly start to form a connection. When Levi falls into the crevᴀsse, Drasa makes a game-time decision to rescue him, putting both their lives and their jobs in danger.

Screen Rant spoke with Taylor-Joy and Teller about The Gorge, including how Derrickson managed to find romance in the film’s terrifying premise, one key scene featuring Drasa that was cut from the film, and how they both became ᴅᴇᴀᴅly ᴀssᴀssins for the film.

“Suspenseful, Tension-Filled Horror Moments. We Knew He Had That.”

Miles Teller Was Really Impressed By Scott Derrickson & His Pitch For The Gorge

Described as “the door to hell” in trailers, the literal gorge that keeps Drasa and Levi from exploring their love is both a metaphorical and physical gap, one that contains unspeakable horrors. It’s a lot to balance, but Teller says, “I was really impressed when I met Scott,” with the director telling his star, “I’m making this because I want to make a love story.”

That was all Teller needed to hear: “Once he said that, I felt like he would absolutely be able to kill this thing and nail it, which he did.” Teller was already familiar with Derrickson’s work, saying, “Scott, with his body of work – the suspenseful tension [and] horror moments – we knew that he had that in spades,” but that the director wanted to transcend that for something different made Teller all the more confident in his vision.

The Levity & Love In The Gorge Comes From The Characters

Drasa & Levi Still Face Terrifying Obstacles

The Gorge isn’t just horror and romance, though. Teller says that Taylor-Joy has a “punk rock dance montage that’s on the cutting room floor.” She goes on to reveal that the scene shows Drasa “[baking] a cake to Iggy Pop.” Those kinds of scenes are just as important as the action and romance to a blockbuster like The Gorge. None of the bombast will be believed if there aren’t interesting characters to back it up.

“I’m a very intuitive actor and I find that my characters tend to come up in a different way each time,” says Taylor-Joy. “[For Drasa], she just felt like somebody who was performative by nature and always wanted to make the joke. It feels like she never really wants to stay in heaviness for too long.” This seems to be how Levi and Drasa form a connection, with Drasa disregarding orders not to contact Levi across the gorge so she can have some company during her year-long isolation.

Drasa stands in contrast to Levi, who has something much darker boiling under the surface. At one point in the film, Levi says, “Bury enough bodies and the graveyard runs out of room,“ a powerful reflection of the guilt he’s bringing to his ᴀssignment at the gorge. Of this, Teller says, “That’s the internalization of it, but at some point it’s going to come out, and it’s going to come out in different ways.”

It’s this darkness that allows him to open up to Drasa, though: “I just felt like [Levi] was shrouded in guilt or loneliness or depravity, but there’s this longing for something else. And rDrasaaa, she always presented the light, and it peeks through it a little bit.” It’s not just Drasa doing the work, though. Levi has “to be open to that, and I just really appreciated that Levi was open to [it],” Teller says, “Because in the beginning, he’s writing poetry to try to flush it out, but it’s Drasa who makes him feel whole and that he’s not destined to be alone..

Drasa is dealing with her own darkness, though. Taylor-Joy says that if Drasa goes to that place and “stays there, then it’s going to be very difficult to pull herself back out of it.” But things like the Iggy Pop scene and the music in the film gave Taylor-Joy a way in and helped her see what draws Drasa back to the light.

“Her music taste gave me the biggest insight into who she was,” Taylor-Joy says, “We shared a lot of the same music tastes. It was the music that I listened to when I was 18, so I had a bunch of different playlists that just felt very Drasa, and a lot of those songs are actually in the movie.”

Ultimately, Taylor-Joy genuinely believes that Drasa and Levi are “soulmates” and that, even if there wasn’t a literal gorge in between them, “Drasa would’ve broken [Levi] down.” Still, it’s “the absurdity of the setting” that ultimately brings the two star-crossed lovers together amid the horror and madness of The Gorge.

Source: Screen Rant Plus