User reviews

Truth is, that's all one needs to say about this low-budget suspenser about a group of spelunkers and scientists following a mysterious passage deep into the earth, long hidden beneath an ancient church in Romania. They quickly run into malformed creatures that exist only in the darkness, and get picked off one by one as they race to find a way out. The creatures are not as scary as the ones in "Pitch Black" or even "The Relic." There is a much better movie buried here (pun intended) involving some very tense and exciting sequences as the spelunkers work their way through various caves and passageways and waterways, and climb up and down steep rock walls. But the clichéd monster movie keeps getting in the way. And in the end, it doesn't help that each character is a walking cliché seemingly right out of "The Core." I would gladly watch "The Cave" a second time, but only for the cave exploration scenes. The ending has a nice, slightly twisty touch.

I went into this movie expecting just your average creature feature akin to Pitch Black, and I wasn't let down. It is, indeed, just your average creature feature. It's not the next best thing to Aliens, but it's not the travesty most reviewers here are making it out to be either.

The Cave is a fun popcorn flick. There's no really deep plot or amazing acting talent. What this movie does have is a few very intense, suspenseful moments, which is only aided by the very dark and claustrophobic atmosphere of the cave. It also has your average thriller twist at the end which I did not see coming.

The cinematography and directing by first-timer Bruce Hunt is surprisingly well done. His background as assistance director for the Matrix films and Dark City is apparent here. While he's no Spielberg or Cameron, he keeps the camera angles interesting, and there are scenes within vast, tall rooms in the cave that are quite breathtaking. One complaint, however, is that he chose to follow other directors mistakes in jarring the camera in a very frenetic and sickening manner back and forth whenever one of the characters is being attacked by the creature. This is not only very annoying and disorienting, but is IMO just a trick to cover up the poor creature fx.

Speaking of the FX, I have to say I'm 50/50 here. Sometimes they looked good, and sometimes they looked like they were from a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. The creature effects that looked good were the closeups, which utilized real models. These looked quite realistic. But far away shots of the CGI creatures are not so impressive.

If you want to sit down on a Friday night and just have fun, then pick up The Cave.

What differentiates "The Cave" from other horror films is the setting. The plot takes place mostly in a large cave, some of which is underwater.

By far, the best element of this film is the underground scenery. The sets are realistic, with spaces and formations that one might see in certain large caverns. And, the film nicely conveys a sense of vertical scale, as we watch cavers climb rock walls, and explore huge rooms with towering ceilings.

The problem here is that the film's director is so committed to an action plot that the camera rarely stays in one scene long enough for the viewer to have a sense of place. We thus forgo the thrill that an underground environment could provide. There's no feeling of amazement, no claustrophobia from tight crawlways, no real fear of any kind. The film's fast pace, combined with characters we barely know and care nothing about, thus dilutes the intended suspense.

The cinematography is flashy and very technical. The lighting is appropriately subdued with interesting colors and unusual camera angles. The background music is somewhat intrusive. Dialogue is weak. And the actors, who appear to be in their twenties, are all photogenic, straight out of central casting. The monsters, what we see of them, seem slightly hokey.

Overall, "The Cave" will appeal to viewers who like horror films set in unusual environments, wherein the pace is super fast, and there is a ton of action. Viewers looking for a credible story will need to exit the cave ... quickly.

I give it an average "5" because it's an average movie. Not really bad, not really good. Just not really ANYTHING. It just sat there and didn't really do anything. As a "man against the elements" movie, it was at least interesting. As a "creature feature," it was completely dull and unoriginal. The characters were one-dimensional - you wouldn't care about any of them.

Rather than letting us spend the time with these characters to learn how and why they are so close-knit, the script writer simply had one of the characters say, "We're like a family." - OK, if you say so . . . then why does no one in the group shed a single tear when people start dying? Characters move from death scene to death scene as if they are just losing casual acquaintances - but wait, she said "they are like a family." OH, I get it - because most family members can't stand each other - OK, now it makes sense! Anyway - if they had lost the monsters, gotten some better actors and a better script, and simply made a movie about cave divers lost underground having to band together to get out, this might have been a decent movie. As it is, the "escape the cave" element is never really richly developed, and instead the focus seems to be on "scaring" you, which it never does, or "wowing" you with action and effects, which it CERTAINLY never does.

In the end, a wasted opportunity, with the only redeeming feature being the nice sets and photography. Wait till it comes to cable, dudes!

Two things - one: this film is nowhere near as bad as some say. Of course, that doesn't make it good, but I enjoyed it.

Second - the prop used to show the strength of communications signal when the first scout explores the cave system is in fact a silver Korg guitar tuner! Not worth mentioning usually except that it is shown in close up several times during this sequence, with the row of red lights normally used to show how close to the note the guitar string is representing here the strength of the signal from the first scout diver...

You can freeze the DVD on one of the closeups to see the words "Cents" and "Hz" and the note names E A D G B E written on the tuner. Classic.

Now that's what I call cheap props for an expensive film. Incidentally, the Korg tuners are very good - at tuning guitars.

This wasn't a bad movie if you like creature flicks. It isn't original, but it does nothing badly and is interesting enough to spend 1.5 hours with.

Firstly: why is it that the entire team consists of hunks and babes? Even the scientists are good looking chicks. Oh well, we'll just have to suspend our thinking and just accept that actors have to be good looking these days, even if their roles completely rule out looking like a supermodel.

As for the movie itself: the action, plot (if there is any to speak of), effects and direction are OK, as is the acting.. Once again, nothing special, novel or interesting but not bad either. The editing was decent except for the action shots. Why does every editor and/or director think that they are doing an MTV clip these days? Keep the camera still! If you think I can see what's going on in random .3 second bursts of film, you're wrong. So irritating.

The effects are OK. Although at times the caves are lit in ways that are impossible for the little flashlights to accomplish, the set is generally dark enough to be realistic. The caves look real. The monsters are not that good but they are almost never shown completely, and in doing so they are acceptable. I do wish the movie had more gore though. Being, as almost all horror movies these days, PG-13 to cash in on teenage kids' money, it does not show any gore besides some scratches and some ugly but very brief ceature shots.

Final comment: I wish the movie had revolved around the first cave expedition that is shown during the introduction titles. They seemed a hell of a lot more interesting than that group of supermodels who came in later. Real men, real people, driven by greed. Oh well.

Decent action, decent thrills. Not bad to kill some time with.

The scariest thing about this horror movie is that the end alludes to a sequel. 'The Cave' is really a disappointing action movie. A team of cave and undersea researchers go to Romania (one of these inexpensive places to make a movie, for now at least) and following a destroyed church enter in a cave that proves to be a realm of underground monsters. Or are they daemons? The movie never decides if it wants to be action, science fiction, or horror, it is a mix of all without salt or fun, and acted in a wooden manner. The best thing about the movie is the cinematography, but even the dark landscape of the cave becomes soon boring, because the film lacks pace and the characters are simply not interesting. Waste of time.

The Cave (2005) is a Horror/Thriller movie that focuses on a group of scientists and professional cave divers as they descend into a previously unexplored cave. This is just one of many horror films that follow the same basic storyline of a group of explorers getting lost in a previously undiscovered cave system only to find themselves trapped with some kind of predatory creatures. Another movie similar to The Cave was actually released the same year in 2005 called (The Descent) which has an almost identical plot to this movie only better and with significantly more gore and likable characters.

The Cave actually had some interesting ideas that sadly weren't focused on all that much in the film. The idea behind how the creature's in the movie evolve is actually pretty interesting. The creature's were once human but were infected by a parasite that forces the hosts body to evolve and adapt to it's surroundings at a rapid rate. Each creature has a unique look aswell as having unique features such as sonar vision, fangs and claws, some even grow wings and gills. This idea could have given us some terrifying and unique creatures but sadly what we got instead are some of the most generic looking CGI creatures I've ever seen in a horror movie.

The Cave lacks the blood and gore of an R rated horror film and while it does have some good ideas they are wasted on this poorly written film. If your looking for a gore filled horror movie about cave explorers being killed off one by one by savage creatures then I recommend The Descent (2005) it is a far superior film.

I saw this movie yesterday night, after going through my other collections and its usually IMDb that provides me motivation of either to watch something or chuck it. So i went through the reviews at IMDb and found that it wasn't highly rated. Still i decided to give it a try as i did not have anything else to watch......and i must say this movie is well made right from the start be it the acting,the choreography,the locations....everything was perfect. The only thing i found wrong was that the characters details were shallow but even then i found this movie amazing.

All i want to say is that reviewers must not go along with the herd if some people criticize then they should as well. This movie deserves the recognition and the people who made it possible as well. Hence i would recommend people to watch this and not go according to the rating earlier shown.

A group of scientist/explorers are brought in to explore a cave in Romania. Legend claims a church was built to seal the cave as a display of God's protective power, and Templar Knights fought winged demons.

The acting is pretty good with some solid actors. The most recognizable actors are Lena Headey, Morris Chestnut, Daniel Dae Kim, Cole Hauser, Piper Perabo, and Eddie Cibrian. They're able to give serious performances without being campy.

It's not scary as a horror, but it works more as an action adventure. They could have laid out the cave system better as the movie goes along. A few seconds of screen time could save a whole lot of headaches. Seeing Piper Perabo swinging on the cliff is a lot of fun. However some of the other action scenes are too confused and chaotic.

The creatures are a bit of a disappointment. It's just yet another CG creature creation. Half lizard half dragon, it could have been so much better considering what the creatures are derived from. They could have made it much more original and unique.

The Cave and The Descent both came out around the same sort of time in the UK but, unlike Armageddon/Deep Impact etc, both were low budget affairs and it wasn't like there was any sort of box office battle between them. Were there a battle though, it would be the sort of boxing match that is over after twelve seconds when the referee stops it – and The Descent would be far and away the winner across almost all measures (except "number of men in cast" I guess). There will always be better films though, so we shouldn't focus on a better one while watching The Cave but rather judge it on its own merits and whether or not it delivers enough to be worth seeing. Roughly the film just about has enough in it to distract but never more than that – and it is never just one thing that is the weakness because the film has issues across it in almost every area that conspire to make it a "so-so" product.

The plot is fine for a monster movie and, coming into the film I was already prepared for "group enter situation for some reason, get trapped and are picked off one by one until only a few manage to escape" film that I hoped would be exciting and enjoyable for what it was. I tend to do this with genre movies because there is little point in looking for more and moaning when it is not there; however, it is fair comment when the genre aspects are badly done or fudged so that it doesn't even operate at the level of the genre. This is the case with The Cave, which cannot ever manage to settle on an approach and focus on making it work really well. The plot is not really the issue but the delivery of it is. Suspension of belief is important and you generally get that by bringing the audience so into the world of the film that they only think with the logic internal to the film, if they have want to think at all. Tension and excitement are ways of doing this and The Descent showed how that was done – The Cave shows how not to do it.

There isn't really any tension here and even the attacks are not that excitement. Mostly they are delivered in bloodless ways with frantic camera work so that you cannot see what is going on. Later on some of the horror gets "uncomfortable" but never more than that; I doubt my pulse got above resting levels at any point during the film. The creatures themselves are reasonable CGI effects but are just another CGI-generated monster that owes a lot to many other creatures that have gone before it – I think there must be a Hollywood CGI computer programme that you push a button and it generates creatures at random with the ability to tweak or add bits to it (in this case wings). The cast are just a bland and unimaginative though. Hamstrung by a poor script, their performances are average and nobody really steps up to engage with the audience and make it "fun" for them. I expected Morris Chestnut to do this but nope. Hauser is the "main" character and does try to make his character's twist work but it gets lost between him and the filmmakers and something that could have been a building menace from within is just another thing that don't work! It also leads to a twist at the end that is only terrifying in that it suggests a sequel (which will probably never come). Perabo provides looks and body to the mix and has a bit of energy but the film never uses her. Headey, Cibrian, Ravanello, Kim and the others might as well have been cardboard cut-outs carried round on sticks for all the difference they made – not that they are "bad" just that nobody can bring anything of real meaning. Hunt's direction is poor. He never really uses his underground/underwater locations to good effect and it is only ever the setting and not a massive part of the film working as it was in The Descent.

What we are left with is a genre film that grinds away at a very basic level, never aspiring to much and delivering less than it should have done. It is distracting but dull as uninteresting characters are killed by creatures that don't inspire terror in ways that are as thrilling as vacuuming the front room. Maybe it is OK for a lazy Friday night in with a basic cable movie, but if you want more than the absolute basics then it is not for you.

This movie had pretty much everything it should. The photography and scenery were very beautifully done. The cast was fun and varied, Cole Hauser especially was very intense and captivating and carried the movie well. There was plenty of suspense, horror, adventure, action, monsters, 3D graphics, the whole range. But a lot of people whine "Its just like Alien". While there are some similar elements between to two, I didn't think of Alien while watching it, and I've seen this movie a few times. Its hard to make a monster movie that DOESN'T have elements in common with others. After seeing some truly miserable movies that people give high marks too, I don't follow the low marks this movie got unless most of the self-important reviewers were from the "Shakespeare in the Park" set. This movie did what it set out to do, and in a fun picturesque way.

An elite team of cave divers is enlisted by a Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures, "Hart's War") to explore a newly discovered underground, watery cave system in Romania. They soon discover that they are not alone in those spooky depths: weird creatures lurk around almost every corner, waiting to strike. When team leader Jack (Cole Hauser, "Pitch Black") receives some serious wounds, the other individuals are no longer sure that his judgment can be trusted.

"The Cave" is pretty similar to another 2005 monster movie, Neil Marshalls' "The Descent", except that other film has more of an edge with its female-centric cast. "The Cave" is an okay creature feature, with solid atmosphere, excellent location work (in Romania and Mexico), impressive underwater footage, good widescreen photography (by Ross Emery), and decent monster design. The cast is capable, but they're playing routine characters in a very routine script. That said, "The Cave" is watchable as it builds up its body count, and debuting director Bruce Hunt, who'd been second unit and third unit directors on the "Matrix" series, delivers some visceral action sequences. (However, the action is often edited in such a choppy manner that it becomes incoherent, a standard practice in Hollywood features for some time now.) Hunt and company are also wise to adhere to creature feature tradition and just show bits and pieces of the monsters until it's time to reveal them in all their glory.

Co-starring are Morris Chestnut, who'd previously dealt with oversized snakes in "Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid", lovely ladies Lena Headey ('Game of Thrones') and Piper Perabo ("Coyote Ugly"), Eddie Cibrian ('Third Watch'), TV veteran Rick Ravanello, Daniel Dae Kim ('Lost'), and Kieran Darcy-Smith ("Animal Kingdom").

Although hardly inspired, "The Cave" provides adequate, effectively paced entertainment for creature feature devotees.

Five out of 10.

Thirty years ago, in the Carpathians Mountains of Romania, a group of explorers blows an entrance to a cave hidden under a church, but the explosion causes a landslide and they become trapped inside. In the present days, the expedition leaded by Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) and his assistant, Dr. Kathryn (Lena Headey) are exploring the place and they find the access through an underwater river, requesting the experienced cave divers team leaded by Jack (Cole Hauser). Dr. Nicolai discovers that, in accordance with the local legend, the church was built to seal the cave as a display of God's protective power, and that Templar Knights entered the cave to fight winged demons. When the group reaches a cave though a tunnel one mile below and three miles in, a creature attacks one of the members and his breathing apparatus explodes, collapsing the tunnel and trapping the group in the cave. Sooner they realize that they are the rescue team and they have to find an exit to survive from the attack of the monsters.

"The Cave" is a predictable rip-off of Alien. If the viewer sees the trailer, as I did, he knows the whole story, and will only bet how many, if any, of the characters will survive in the end. This movie entertains because of the locations and the good cast. I am a fan of Lena Headey and her beauty is a good reason to see this film. The conclusion is a hook for a sequel, as usual. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Caverna" ("The Cave")

This movie is enjoyable enough as a popcorn creature feature but compared to Neil Marshall's The Descent which came out in the same year this falls well short of being an effective horror thriller.

The Cave should be a tense, claustrophobic and terrifying experience but it's simply not, instead it goes down the action thriller route and relies on CGI creature effects to win the audience over. It's more of an adventure to explore these caves rather than fear them which is where The Descent works so much better because you can feel the claustrophobia, being in a sense of place, of being trapped in that situation.

Here we don't really care about the characters and neither does the uninspired script that is well worn and thinly plotted. The Cave offers nothing new except a few thrills, cool visuals and interestingly designed creatures.

Lena Headey stands out as one of the scientists but the characters are badly drawn and the movie doesn't know whether it wants to be a horror, thriller or action flick. So despite it's physical depth the Cave is actually a shallow experience.

This movie definitely has a slight Lovecraft vibe to it, but not a strong one.

As mentioned by another review, there wasn't enough time to develop any attachment to any of the characters, despite a good casting of actors and actresses I already know.

The story had a lot of potential, but it felt too rushed and busy at times. Could definitely done with being longer so things could be more drawn out and hopefully allow viewers to bond better with the characters. It was getting to the point I couldn't remember who was who, especially which 2 were brothers.

As much as I like Piper Perabo, she needs to work on her screaming as the scene where she has to scream it's weak for the moment.

Despite the drawbacks and downfalls, overall I enjoyed the movie and would probably watch it again, and I would recommend it to others who are fans of this genre and even other fans of H.P. Lovecraft as the whole setting does feel like it was influenced by his work.

I watched this years ago and found it boring .for a start I didn't like or dislike any of the characters therefore didn't care what happened to them and the effects are just dreadful. Maybe I was harsh ? Maybe it was because I was comparing it to the amazing descent directed by Neil Marshall ? So I decided to give it another go. Wish I hadn't bothered

Good acting, neat scenery, well paced, stressful, engaging, consistent entertainment with no dull spots for 20 minutes before anything interesting happens again. Cool creatures. Just enough glimpses of the creatures, not very early on, so you have to use your imagination. Just an overall a good monster movie. That is if you are capable of suspending disbelief for an hour and a half and just enjoying what it is. Low reviews seem to be from a very pretentious audience, that doesn't "enjoy" this genre as entertaining. They just want to pick it apart.

This movie is far better than, say, Anaconda 2, although it shares some crew, I believe. If you don't expect a masterpiece, but a fun entertaining flick, that's exactly what you will get. Of course it isn't breaking any ground, but the characters' situation is only implausible occasionally (as opposed to XXX State of the Union, without two back to back minutes of realistic action). I actually liked the characters and thought that they seemed realistically motivated. I would be proud to go diving with these guys any day (most of them, anyway). Plus the cave is labyrinthine and interesting. If you are the person who has to see what lays over the next hill or around the next corner, you may like this movie.

This was by far one of the worst movies I have seen! I paid very little to get in and I still felt ripped off. I was actually kinda wanting to see it too. All that changed rapidly. The movie is one big blur. You couldn't tell who was being eaten and really you didn't care. The movie has potential but the camera was the main problem. Every shot was an Extreme Close-Up of god knows what. You could not tell cave from monster. Oh yes there are monsters. This is the bastard spawn of Alien vs. Predator. Please save your time and money and do not see this movie. Spend time with your family, go for a walk, sit staring at the wall(at least you will know what you are looking at).