The Cave (2005)

Director: Bruce Hunt

Starring: Cole Hauser, Eddie Cibrian, Morris Chestnut, Lena Headey, Piper Perabo, Rick Ravanello, Daniel Dae Kim, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Marcel Lures

More info: IMDb

Tagline: There are places man was never meant to go.

Plot: Decades after a rock church in communist Romania's Carpathians caved when an expedition caused a landslide and buried everyone, Dr. Nicolai's scientific team exploring the associated Templar Knights monster fighting-legend discovers a deep, flooded cave system and hires the brothers Jack and Tyler's brilliant divers team to explore it. Another explosion traps them, after finding a mysterious parasite turning all species carnivore, and later an independently evolved predator species. Jack may be infected and turning, but Tyler sticks with him, so the group splits, hunted by the monsters, which also fly.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

I didn't care much for THE DESCENT which sucks because I really dig caves. I'd heard a lot of positive talk about it and I didn't see how it could fail but it did. I've done a little bit of cave exploring myself and I never pass up an opportunity to take a cave tour whenever I'm near one. I also dig diving and underground waterways. That means that I'm primed and ready for THE CAVE and blow my ass away. In a way, it did.



I expected a bunch of hot young somethings doing and saying badass shit underground and that's not too far off the mark but what I didn't expect was all of that type of shit was played down more than usual and that the underwater and cave photography is stunning and utterly jaw-dropping. I use such high praise because this is a low budget film that has no right to look this good but it does. I'm most impressed - impressed enough to give THE DESCENT another look. Maybe this time I'll like it. If THE CAVE can do that then it's even better than I thought. If this sounds remotely interesting then you need to see this. Don't overlook it because the DVD box reeks of direct to DVD, Sci-Fi channel, low budget horseshit because it ain't.