7 Movies Like Fall That Are Genuinely Terrifying

In 2022, director Scott Mann took audiences to such a high point they almost didn't want to come down. The movie was called "Fall," and it is a brilliantly isolated thriller that sees two best friends stuck at the top of a broadcasting tower when the ladder they used to climb up is no longer there to get them back to solid ground.

It's this kind of premise, basic as it is, that has often left audiences hooked until the very last frame. To see one or two people enter panic mode and then go to great lengths to make sure they walk away from their massive mishap is something that will always keep us on the edge of our seats until we fall off it. Or, we could see them make one bad misstep that can cost them dearly.

With that in mind, here's an eclectic list of alternatives to get stuck into after you've landed from "Fall." Movies that will have you braving elements, unhinged enemies, and even forces that frankly aren't of this world at all. Don't get lost. Or do? The choice really is up to you.

Long before Ryan Reynolds was cracking audiences up as the Merc with the Mouth in the "Deadpool" franchise, his larger-than-life character was confined to a 6-foot-by-3-foot-by-18-inch crate that he couldn't escape from. Directed by Rodrigo Cortés, "Buried" follows Reynolds as Paul, an American truck driver stationed in Iraq, who wakes up to find himself buried in an undisclosed location with only a limited oxygen supply and time running out. It's another rare one-man show with Reynolds wrapped in darkness and his own panic as supporting talent checks in via the Blackberry (remember them?) he's been left with and only a Zippo lighter illuminating the frame.

While there's no doubt that Reynolds is now a megastar with his whip-smart comedic timing and charm making him such a grand name in Hollywood now, this is a film worth visiting if only to see how he got there. Thanks to some impressive cinematography from Eduard Grau, the film does a good job of dressing up a film that sees Reynolds lying down for all of 95 minutes, doing everything he can to get himself up and out of the horror he's found himself in. Naturally those fearful of enclosed spaces might want to give this a miss, but anyone who wants to see the man behind Wade Wilson before he built his career around d**k jokes and dressed-up F-bombs might want to give one of Reynolds' most underrated movies a look. 

From one deep dark tale to another that throws in some monstrous additional elements for good measure, Neil Marshall's "The Descent" is one of the more fantastical entries on this list but that doesn't stop it from being any more frightening with its isolation and unsettling creature feature add-ons. The 2005 horror sees an all-female group of thrill-seekers go into an unmarked cave only to get trapped and find something inhuman waiting for them in the darkness.

Understandably, following his cult hit werewolf film, "Dog Soldiers," audiences were anticipating finding something monstrous down in the depths, but the real highlight of Marshall's horror is the terror formed in the tight spaces he forces his characters into early on. It might just be "a poxy cave," but before the beasties start closing in, the walls they start crawling out of have already done enough. Every carefully lit nook and dark corner of the screen helps amplify the stress levels so that when the blood starts spilling, it's pumping at a high rate. And who can forget the brilliantly bleak ending of "The Descent" that closes things off nicely and absolutely doesn't warrant a sequel at all, even if it did get one four years later?

Every so often a director would plant a flag in a big-budget mountain movie and in 2000, "Goldeneye" and "Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell did it with "Vertical Limit." Chris O'Donnell, Scott Glenn, and a then-unknown Ben Mendelsohn play members of a ragtag rescue team that climbs K2 in search of Peter Garrett's (O'Donnell) sister, who has gone missing with another group. Braving the elements and using explosive methods to get there, it leads to a nail-biting path with Bill Paxton in spectacular weasel mode as Elliot Vaughn, the smug billionaire who isn't the cool philanthropist he's making himself out to be.

Kicking things off with a killer opening that does a great job of setting the tone from then on out, "Vertical Limit" spends the rest of the film having its brave rescuers getting snuffed out one by one courtesy of Mother Nature. Legs are broken, falls are taken and Peter is running for his life as seasoned climber Montgomery Wick (Glenn) serves as the bitter veteran with a score to settle, spouting lines like, "Up there you're not dying, you're dead." It might feel a bit dated now, but sometimes you just need Ben Mendelsohn yelling as an angry mad Australian while the original "Man on Fire" lowers the atmosphere to ridiculously cool temperatures.

Taking the classic tropes of a survival movie and chipping away at an interesting thriller in the process, "A Lonely Place To Die" sees Melissa George among a group of mountaineers who discover a small girl buried alive in the Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately, the men who put her there soon come after her rescuers, leading to a fight for survival and George's hero trying to avoid getting caught in the middle of seedy criminal dealings.

While it might stretch its drama further than a radio tower, there's something about the treacherous Scottish Highland and how directors Julian Gilbey maneuver along it that makes "A Lonely Place to Die," just like its many victims in the story, easily passed by.

George, who after turns in films like "Triangle" and "30 Days of Night" gets another stab at a moody thriller that she thrives in by the end of it. Include the perma-chilled presence of Sean Harris (better known as Solomon Lane in the "Mission: Impossible" movies) and "A Lonely Place to Die" might be one of the most underrated films on this list — and one that actually deserves seeking out.

Phone booths might be an endangered option of communication but Joel Schumacher's thriller that spends most of its runtime with Colin Farrell in one will have you hooked. The present Penguin — and Oscar-nominated actor — plays New York City talent agent Stu Shepard, who makes a bad call when he answers the phone to a sniper with his sights trained on the booth. From there, "Phone Booth" has all eyes on Farrell as Kiefer Sutherland's rasp snakes down the line, keeping our hero on the spot and wrecking his life in the process.

With cop Ed Ramey (Forest Whitaker), Stu's mistress Pam (Katie Holmes), and his wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell) all putting their lives on the line to get close to the unnamed caller, Schumacher does an exceptional job of building the tension. He makes dressing up in a phone booth better than Clark Kent does when he needs a costume change. Having it happen in a hectic spot like Times Square only adds to the frenetic tension while still keeping the film's leading man confined to four glass walls and a phone line. Given Farrell's recent resurgence courtesy of "The Banshees of Inesherin," "The Lobster," and his time in Gotham City, this is a great example to see some of his early work and the great job he did with it.

If you think "Fall" had you biting your nails, try watching a film about a guy who practically depends on them to survive incredible climbs that'll have you gasping for air. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's Oscar-winning documentary, "Free Solo" tells the story of Alex Honnold, a mountain climber who aims to free solo climb El Capitan in California. With no harnesses and only his own body to push to the limits, Honnold tries to do the unthinkable while his friends and his partner at the time, Sanni McCandless, look up in dread, monitoring his every move.

Every reach for a jagged ledge and tippy-toe that finds itself a place is brilliantly and meticulously displayed, making you honestly feel like you're watching someone's imminent demise on film. In between those chest-pounding moments, though, time is spent gaining a fascinating insight into how Honnold's obsession with the unthinkable consumes him. The testing venture takes its toll on his now-wife, Sanni, who reaches breaking point even before he's taken the climb but in the end, this is a tale that grips you with its reality and won't let go until it makes its one final reach to the top.

Another tale of willpower and lone determination, "The Revenant" is Alejandro G. Iñárritu's relentless and chilling thriller that sees Leonardo DiCaprio as fur trapper Hugh Glass, crawling back from the brink after suffering a tragedy and being left for dead. Through Emmanuel Lubezki's stunning lens, every bit of natural light — and an angry CGI bear — is used to their full potential in bringing this bleak and brutal revenge story to life.

The behind-the-scenes horror stories will remain as iconic as the film itself, with tales of DiCaprio never being the same after filming, having eaten raw meat to depict his character doing anything he can to survive and exact his revenge. Meanwhile, Tom Hardy applies the hairy thuggish presence of John S. Fitzgerald, who double-crosses Glass and lives to regret it. Look through your fingers to see that unflinching bear attack that has our hero thrown around the screen but after that, and take in what is a true movie marvel that deserves all the praise it received.