Short of having a big skull and crossbones carved into it, Mt. Rushmore-style, Meru Peak is as forbidding a proposition for climbers as you'll find on the planet. It’s not as high at Everest but as new adventure documentary Meru charts, it’s at least as deadly. Should you be lucky enough to make it, the summit itself is a shiv-like yard or so of high-altitude, razor-sharp terror where the music to the Omen probably plays on repeat. See what it holds in store for cinemagoers in the new trailer below.
Following in the crampon prints of mountain docs like Touching In The Void, The Summit and Beyond The Edge, Meru follows three American climbers who attempt to be the first to make it to the top of the 21,000-foot Himalayan deathtrap. Along the way, they encounter snowstorms, freezing temperatures and, soon, a supply shortage that ups the ante still further.
What makes this doc different is that the climbers – Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk - have also filmed it, lending it an edginess more common to found–footage horrors. It's struck a chord with the DGA, and the Academy, who put it on their Best Documentary Feature shortlist. If Yetis had their own award ceremony, it’d undoubtedly score top honours there.
You can catch Meru in UK cinemas and download services from February 12.