USA, 2005
Review:
JA Kerswell
Although playing for most of its runtime as a subterranean monster movie, this turns out to be an unlikely slasher. A rag-tag group of cavers go off the beaten track and travel to Russia to investigate a previously unexplored underground system. Inevitably inviting largely unflattering comparisons to the same year’s THE DESCENT (although it was made before that film), THE CAVERN has its moments, but the endless, over-saturated wobblecam may leave many viewers shaken and not stirred.
Two jeep-loads of young cavers head to the wilds of Kyzyl Kim Desert, Kazakhstan (not so convincingly doubled by some woods outside Los Angeles) to undertake their most adventurous mission yet. They are a curious bunch sitting around an inexplicably CGI campfire (surely the real thing would have been cheaper?): half made up of yee-haw party people and sullen men, who make portentous comments such as: “Cave spirits?” “The most unpredictable of them all …”. Another solemnly intones: “Jesus was buried and resurrected in a cave.” So much for this being a fun excursion. As is the case with most films of this ilk, they have neglected to tell anyone where they are going but still head off into the cave complex regardless.
Once inside, they quickly become disorientated and soon find freshly spilt blood, leading them to their dying local guide, who has been disembowelled. After another caver is cut in half and with growls in the distance, the group realises they are trapped underground with something - or someone - who is really pissed off. They desperately search for another way to get above ground as they are picked off one-by-one …
THE CAVERN
has several flaws that are difficult to look past and may be fatal for some viewers. Even though it is not a found footage movie, it is shot like one - with the shaky, never-resting camera; fast cuts and flashes (epileptics beware); plunges into darkness and all the screaming and hysterics that you’d expect from that subgenre. The best-found footage movies work this to their advantage with a discombobulating cacophony of unease. At the other end of the spectrum, this hyperactivity is just plain confusing and only serves to irritate an audience. THE CAVERN falls somewhere in between but unfortunately leans into the latter. The constant close-ups of the cast’s faces admittedly help to accentuate the feeling of claustrophobia but also tends to highlight the ho-hum acting on display. None of the characters feel believable and are quickly reduced to screaming heads with rapidly zig-zagging head torches. It is difficult to get fully engaged in their plight.
The movie cheats a little with a killer who is strong enough to rip men in half, which the group understandably think is some kind of animal. One of them unhelpfully opines: “Some kind of wolf bear hybrid, I dunno.” Their pursuer makes the same kind of growl/shout adults make when they pretend to be monsters to frighten little kids. The end result here is about as scary. Admittedly, the killer’s wolf skull mask is creepy enough but is mostly lost in the blur of frantic action and shakycam for the majority of the running time. The ending perhaps lifts the film out of the mundane but won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who saw THE PREY (1980).
Made for a reported $150,000 and shot outside Los Angeles, the film was originally titled WITHIN - and gained a title change to cash in on the bigger budgeted subterranean horror THE CAVE (also 2005). Although Neal Marshall’s THE DESCENT didn’t receive a stateside release until 2006, it was released to a good deal of buzz to British screens in the summer of 2005. It may appear likely that THE CAVERN came about as a cheapie cash-in, but the film actually wrapped filming in October 2004 meaning their similarities were mere coincidence. There was obviously something in the air - or perhaps underground - that year.
BODY COUNT 7:
Female 1 / Male 6
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THE CAVERN trailer