Where did the water-bourne sociopath go? It feels like that villainous archetype never really escaped its 80s and 90s heyday, and the likes of Dead Calm and The River Wild (not that the female in peril genre hasn’t continued to wend and wind its way through slashers and thrillers everywhere else since). So it feels like a jet of fresh water for Netflix to bring the concept pounding onto the streamer with this easy-to-watch thriller.  

Apex is lovingly dedicated to the idea of sociopath meets troubled single female, and is packed with as many of the cliches you’d expect, along with some surprisingly dark detours. Mainly, Apex is elevated by its striking capture of the Blue Mountains and by two committed performers in Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton.

After tragically losing her boyfriend (Eric Bana) while climbing in Norway, Threron’s Sasha heads to Australia five months later for a lonely expedition through the wilds of the outback, haunted by her boyfriend’s words about luck running out. After an apparently helpful stranger, Ben (Egerton), gives her directions to take on the Grand Isle Narrows from the secluded Blackwater Bay, it’s not long before Sasha finds her things stolen and Ben coincidentally camped nearby. 

It soon becomes clear that the disappearances blamed on the dangerous river course have a far more human, far more deranged source, and Sasha finds herself running from it in a sick and twisted race for her life. 

The rather rough-and-ready double-meaning of Apex’s title (it starts and ends at height, while Ben is revealed to be a rather savage predator in those parts) sums up the easy thrill of the movie, which keeps a nice, clean 95-minute runtime. 

As a woman in peril, Theron brings her well-practised, solid range to Sasha. She’s no pushover, and she can take a battering after battering, from the river and her predator, something she’s brought to films like Mad Max: Fury Road before. Jeremy Robbins’ script is light, but an effective application of love and loss helps shape Sasha’s peril into a journey through grief, and that helps her feel like just a bit more than another victim.

Opposite her, Egerton is a simpering, sinewy, slimy ball of menace. His voice raised in a strained Strine twang, he chitter-chatters through the revelations of his campaign of terror that come thick and fast. Sure, there’s a half hour of the usual faux-affable evil to wade through, but the breakfast scene when he reveals he’s been keeping an eye on Sasha, before the chase quickly kicks in for the final hour, is superbly blocked and cut together. 

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur has clearly kept a tight grip on things. In the beautifully captured passing of time across the raging water, shallow pools and dark canyons, he has a gift of two wiry opponents to watch scrapping (and there is a LOT of close combat). Although the story’s leanness brings some issues, as cliches pile up and aren’t diffused too quickly, it makes up for it by diving deep into Egerton’s character. Some of the physical and background revelations it packs in dip things into horror, and on occasion, can feel a little stretched, or perhaps overly filed.  

With about half an hour to go, it’s difficult to see where the story might go. Quite a nice place to be, but the speedy resolution and how it leaves the two players won’t be satisfying for everybody. The last act, and the film in its entirety, is over a bit too quickly. It’s a beautiful but brutal flash in the campfire pan.