We start off in Romania 30 years ago where a group of men have decided to go hunting for a Cave that is rumored to have been the place of a fight between demons and templar knights. When they try to crack open the entrance they find out that they may have used too much dynamite and are buried in the cave along with tons of rubble. We then go to the present as scientists are investigating the same location and trying to see if the cave is there. Well they find it and bring in some cave divers to help investigate.
From there accidents occur and they end up being stuck in the cave also. The Cave is one of those monster movies that pisses me off. We get some rather cool looking monsters that pick off our cast one at a time but we rarely see them. I understand to build tension for the first several kills it is good not to show what the creature looks like only quick shots or images (shadows even) but when you are reduced to showing the creatures for about 15 minutes of running time that just sucks. Another complaint is the PG-13 rating. Right there you have neutered the film. This means there will be no bloody decapitations, no limbs being ripped off or severed or any squishy stuff unless it is from the monsters (made famous by the lame duck Aliens vs Predator). This seemed to really hamper several of the death scenes as they could have been more menacing.
So the 2 things about monster movies that is cool 1) The Monster Design and 2) The Gore are kept to a minimum so what do we get, lots of exploring underwater caves.....yeah. Is it all boring? No they do a good job of handling this and the characters, for the most part, are not annoying but its the fact that this is a monster movie and not a cave diving National Geographic special that really will get to you.
In the end this movie does some things right some things wrong. In the end its is just there and when its just there its average so I give The Cave: 5/10: average monster flick, with an R rating and more of the beasties on screen (which did look cool when seen) this "coulda a been a contenda" but falls flat.
In conclusion: If you are going to see one Cave Monster movie see The Descent.
The Cave is out now on DVD.
From there accidents occur and they end up being stuck in the cave also. The Cave is one of those monster movies that pisses me off. We get some rather cool looking monsters that pick off our cast one at a time but we rarely see them. I understand to build tension for the first several kills it is good not to show what the creature looks like only quick shots or images (shadows even) but when you are reduced to showing the creatures for about 15 minutes of running time that just sucks. Another complaint is the PG-13 rating. Right there you have neutered the film. This means there will be no bloody decapitations, no limbs being ripped off or severed or any squishy stuff unless it is from the monsters (made famous by the lame duck Aliens vs Predator). This seemed to really hamper several of the death scenes as they could have been more menacing.
So the 2 things about monster movies that is cool 1) The Monster Design and 2) The Gore are kept to a minimum so what do we get, lots of exploring underwater caves.....yeah. Is it all boring? No they do a good job of handling this and the characters, for the most part, are not annoying but its the fact that this is a monster movie and not a cave diving National Geographic special that really will get to you.
In the end this movie does some things right some things wrong. In the end its is just there and when its just there its average so I give The Cave: 5/10: average monster flick, with an R rating and more of the beasties on screen (which did look cool when seen) this "coulda a been a contenda" but falls flat.
In conclusion: If you are going to see one Cave Monster movie see The Descent.
The Cave is out now on DVD.