The Cave

The Cave is a dull, thoroughly unpleasant horror flick revolving around a subterranean expedition that goes awry following the appearance of several blood-thirsty monsters. Filled to the brim with under-developed characters and seriously inept dialogue (ie “respect the cave!”), The Cave comes off as nothing less than a complete disaster right from the get-go. Talented actors such as Cole Hauser and Morris Chestnut are left with nothing to do, while director Bruce Hunt attempts to compensate for Michael Steinberg and Tegan West’s shockingly incompetent screenplay by throwing in a variety of annoying and ultimately needless visual tricks. The relentlessly dark atmosphere quickly becomes oppressive, and even the film’s monsters – presumably the highlight – are poorly rendered and shown only in brief snippets (the gore quotient is virtually non-existent, thanks to a ludicrous PG-13 rating). Adding insult to injury are the film’s similarities to Neil Marshall’s The Descent, which is a far, far superior effort in every way imaginable.

1/2* out of ****