The Cave

During the cold war in Romania a bunch of men were searching for a church. One of the guys asks why there's a church in the middle of nowhere. Answer: It was built over a cave to seal in demons. If the skulls and the grotesque reliefs along the walls weren't enough clues, maybe the giant mosaic on the floor with a giant winged demon on it will help. I don't know what these guys expected to find in the church or why they were even there, but since they use dynamite to blow up the mosaic and get into the cave I'm guessing they aren't with the Romanian Historical Conservation group. The floor caves in and they all fall into the cave, then there's a giant avalanche which demolishes the church and seals them in.

Fast-forward thirty years to the present day and the church has been unearthed.  Two scientists or cave biologists or something, go into the cave, and see that half of it is underwater. Therefore they need cave divers.

Cut to a team of cave divers: Jack (Cole Hauser), Tyler (Eddie Cibrian), Top (Morris Chestnut), Charlie (Piper Perabo), Briggs (Rick Ravanello) and Strode (Kieran Darcy-Smith). They are doing something in Mexico, but I have no idea what it has to do with the rest of the story so I'm skipping it. They are brought in to Romania and there they meet the other three people that will be going down into the cave with them: Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures), Kathryn (Lena Headey), the two scientists,  and Alex (Daniel Dae Kim) the camera guy. Tyler immediately flirts with Kathryn, because what is a horror/ action movie without a romantic subplot? She could care less, until his older brother, Jack shows up. Yikes! We also find out that Charlie's father was an expert cave diver that took Jack under his wing, which is why she is part of the team. I hate how they feel the need to explain why there's a woman on weird and dangerous adventure type things. Can't she just love cave diving? Is that so hard to believe?

Dr. Nic shows them a bit of the mosaic that survived the explosion and avalanche and he explains that it is showing the Templar Knights fighting giant winged demons with skulls for heads. Lovely. Anyway Jack sends Briggs as first scout,  and Ty is all bent out of shape because he's the best scout. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't divers supposed to dive in teams of two? So why is he going off alone? Anyway there are a few tense filled moments when he loses contact with the others, twice, but they decide to go in anyway. So the entire bunch of them jump into the water. They all arrive safely at advance base camp, except for Strode and Ty who are fixing the link. Strode is attacked by something and his pack blows, trapping them in the cave. They determine the only way to survive is to find another way out. Dr. Nic thinks they should stay put, but Jack points out that they won't be missed for 12 days which is when their supplies run out.

Jack and Top scout ahead. Briggs blames Ty for Strode's death and they get into a fight, which Ty is blamed for. Huh? Why is Tyler always getting picked on? If they are all a 'family', which Charlie said they were, why isn't everybody the butt of at least one joke? Why is Ty singled out? Are they trying to make him a sympathetic hero? Well it ain't working.

Anyway, Jack is attacked by the same creature that killed Strode, but he manages to escape and Top brings him back to the group. Together they all set out, but after a while they all start thinking Jack's wounds are infected because he's acting all weird. Tyler still believes in his brother, so the rest follow him, even after they fall down a waterfall and Dr. Nicolai  is carried off by one of the creatures, that looks surprisingly like the creature on the mosaic. We also see that the creature has a tattoo on his 'hand', which is identical to the tattoo on the hand of the guy who set the dynamite 30 years ago. So they didn't die, they got mutated into the creatures. That would've been a shock if they hadn't already said it in the trailers.

Jack ignores what the others say is clearly a sign of an exit , instead insisting that they should climb a rock face. Charlie thinks she should go because she is the best climber, Jack says no, but she goes anyway and then attacked and killed by a creature that can fly, by the way. Jack is insistent that they climb, but the others don't want to. After it is discovered that Jack is starting to mutate in one of the creatures (because his eyes are all weird) the team splits. Kathryn, Briggs and Alex going down the river and Jack, Ty and Top going up the way.

Long story short, Jack, Top and Ty find an exit, which is in a cavern filled with creatures, both alive and dead, and dead Templar Knights. Ty goes back for the others, but he's too late fore Briggs. He does find Kathryn and they start heading back and they bump into Alex. They make it back to the cavern and meet up with Top and Jack. While trying to get to the exit, Alex is killed and Jack blows up the cavern, killing all the creatures and himself, but enabling the others to get out.

At the end we see Top getting into a cab and Ty sitting with Kathryn. He asks her if she thought Jack could survive outside the cave. She answers that at first she didn't think so but now she changed her mind. As she kisses him goodbye we see that her eyes are all weird, like Jack's were. Too late Ty realizes that she's mutating and chases after her but she's already vanished into the crowd. The end.

You know this movie wasn't terrible. It wasn't great and I wouldn't call it a horror movie, but  it was still enjoyable. There were a few unbelievable things though. First of all why did those guys at the beginning go to the church in the first place? What were they looking for? It made no sense for them to show up there for no reason. Second, when will people learn that legends are based on true events? If some guys broke their back lugging rocks and whatnot to the middle of nowhere to cover a cave, there's probably a very good reason for it. If they did it because they thought they were trapping a demon in the hole, then you better believe that there's something in that hole. It might just be a mutant guinea pig, but there's no harm in bringing semi-automatic weapons, just to be on the safe side. I can't believe these guys are divers and they don't even have a harpoon gun. Third, no way in hell Charlie survived falling and being caught by her harness. I listened to a lecture on harness safety, and if you fall like the way she did, you would have serious internal injuries and be dead in a matter of minutes. Fourth, did the creature have ESP or something? How did Jack all of a sudden understand exactly what they were thinking? That's kind of weird. And last, I cannot believe that these creatures couldn't find the exit. It was right there in the centre of the freaking cavern and they couldn't find it after hundreds of years? How dumb are they?

Other than that it was okay.

Grade: 6/10