An exploration into the Carpathian Mountains goes bad when an accident traps a team of deep cave divers inside.  As they try and find their way out, they discover that they have just slipped down a few rungs on the food chain.

CRITIQUE

If you’ve seen the trailers for it, you already know that The Cave is little more than Alien in a cave with bit of Pitch Black thrown into the mix. It’s a familiar story, a handful of people get trapped in an enclosed environment and are chased around by overly-toothy creatures that manage to be able to sneak around unseen and jump out of every dark corner like demonic jack-in-the-boxes.  It’s one of those films that, if you try to think about it too much, you’re head begins to ache.

The story is simple.  A team of expert cave drivers led by the overly serious Jack (Cole Hauser) are brought in to explore a newly discovered cave system in Romania.  However, once they go inside, an accident seals their only exit, trapping them many miles below the surface.  And since this is a self contained eco system, they have found themselves thrust into a food chain in which they are not on top of.  There are a pack of creatures in the cave hunting them.  And to make matters worse, Jack has gotten infected with a parasite that is quickly altering him. Changing him in something…not human.

It’s an incredibly cliché concept. And the film doesn’t really try to be more than its premise.  While it does boast some impressive and beautiful underwater photography (by Wes Skiles,) it does very little else. The monsters are the standard Gigeresque creatures that are found in sci-fi horror films of this type.  The cast gives laughable performances (the silliest delivery comes from Piper Perabo. Who, as one of the winged monsters comes swooping down on her, screams “They can fly. They can FREAKING Fly.” God bless PG-13 edited dialogue.) The film is cut in the typical MTV ADD standard, making most of the action sequences completely incoherent.  It’s a heavily flawed film.

And yet, despite the film’s flaws, it isn’t a complete waste.  It’s entertaining in a b-movie sense.  Try and guess which character is gonna get taken next, who out of the crew is expendable, and who has to survive till the end of the film.  It’s fun in a silly drive-in way. Nothing more, nothing less.

THE VIDEO

The film transfer is well done. The black levels are consistent and there are no noticeable flaws.

THE AUDIO

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. The mix is flawed. At various times during the film, the sound drops down quite a ways (about half volume or so,) then returns to normal. However, when the sound is normal, the mix is pretty good.

THE EXTRAS

Filmmaker’s Commentary: An okay commentary track with the director and producer. They discuss a few of the changes from the original script and the finished product, however, this commentary is far less interesting than the writer’s track.

Writer’s Commentary: A wonderful commentary track with the two writers of the film. This is one of those rare times in which someone involved with the film mentions the things that disappointed them with the final project (in their case, how different the finished film is to the film that they wrote.)

Into the Cave: A featurette about Wes Skiles’ involvement in the film and his underwater photography. It has some extremely beautiful photography of various caves that Skiles has explored.

Designing Evolution: Tatopoulos Studios: A featurette looking at the creature designs in the film. Nothing special, but it does do a good job showing how much work really goes into making a creature suit for these sorts of horror films.

FINAL THOUGHT

The Cave was a better film than I expected it to be (granted, my expectations were pretty low.)  It’s nothing special, just a silly little popcorn movie. Recommended to horror fans, though a rental for everybody else.