The latest in a spate of films focused on the thrill and the danger of climbing, Summit Fever is a somewhat melodramatic but ultimately gripping drama that puts the audience close enough to see the chalk, dirt, and snow under the fingernails of its intrepid, and possibly insane, protagonists.

Michael (Freddie Thorp), a young English climber meets up with a group of like-minded thrill-seekers in the winter sports haven on Chamonix. Their aim is to take on the three most notorious peaks in the Alps: the Matterhorn, the Eiger, and Mont Blanc. Even after witnessing a series of horrific fatal accidents on the first two mountains, Michael and his best friend JP (Michel Biel), they are determined to take on the Alps’ ultimate challenge. However, a sudden storm cuts off the group just short of the summit without any chance of rescue.

Julian Gilbey‘s film certainly looks the part and will make anyone with an issue with height instantly sweaty at the palms. Five years in the making and springing from Gilbey’s decade-long love love of climbing, and the communal atmosphere of Chamonix in particular, the film wastes no time in getting into the vertiginous camera work. While focusing on the characters, the the perspective often swoops back to ram home just how fragile and vulnerable they are against vast, implacable nature. It’s frequently spectacular.

Less compelling is the storytelling itself. Spending large sections of time on both the two earlier mountains makes the narrative plod a little, and inevitably strips some focus and attention from the critical event. There’s also a slightly generic romantic subplot for Michael with pretty skier Isabelle (Mathilde Warnier); an artificial means of upping the emotional stakes which isn’t really required and which pushes the runtime into slightly bloated territory. The actors do as well as they can with the off-piste material, but the dialogue relies on big emotions and bravado, although Ryan Phillippe is quite fun as the vaguely patriarchal elder statesman of the group.

Despite some thin characterisation, what Summit Fever depicts well is that certain compulsion some feel to risk their life in pursuit of their chosen thrill. After the high profile death of a free solo climber, and even the loss of some close friends, the instinct of the group is to acknowledge the tragedy while looking ahead to the next climb. It doesn’t have anything like the incisiveness of a Herzog in its examination of obsession, but such is the immediacy and grandeur of the climbing sequences that you can begin to understand the siren song of the peaks.

Available on VoD from Mon 17 Oct 22