The Cave

Two decades after the Cold War, a group of archeologists are investigating the ruins of a medieval church in the Carpathian Mountains, and discover that it was built above a gigantic  underground river complex. They neglect the horror stories, told by the locals, about winged demons haunting the underground world, and hire a team of professional explorers to descent into the cave. 

A derivative shocker, called Alien Underground by some. Scott's SF-Horror certainly was a source of influence, but The Cave seems even more similar to Neil Marshall's The Descent (released the same year, so probably it's coincidence). The dark, underground world is inhabited by strange, savage creatures whose origins are a bit enigmatic (the explanation given in this movie isn't exactly convincing). The Descent became a critically lauded movie and an enormous box-office success, The Cave received mostly negative reviews and was largely neglected by cinemagoers; thanks to the DVD market - reaching full potential around this time - it finally managed to break even.

I never really liked Marshall's movie, but it offered at least a couple of good scares. The same can be said about The Cave: it's all but great, you've seen it all before, but as far as the horror is concerned, it delivers the goods (or better: the scares). It's also one of those movies in which the men are all pumped up sport school types and the archeologist ('professor') leading the project, has an assistant who is a) a woman, b) very young, and c) good-looking.

Aanraders in overeenkomstige genres, volgens Boobytrap:
- Halloween (horror : 8)
- Jaws (horror / fantasy : 7.5)
- Black Christmas (1974) (horror : 7.5)
- When a Stranger Calls (horror / thriller : 7.5)
- Sisters (horror / thriller : 7.5)

Hoe beoordeelt Boobytrap categorie horror eigenlijk? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10