Movie Info
Movie Name: The Cave
Studio: Screen Gems
Genre(s): Horror/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): August 26, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Wait…why aren’t we afraid of the aggressive animals and only the big monster ones?
A cave in the Carpathian Mountains could contain a previous unexplored ecosystem. Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) and Dr. Jennings (Lena Headey) hire a skilled cave diving team led by Jack McAllister (Cole Hauser) and his brother Tyler (Eddie Cibrian) to help them enter the underwater labyrinth. When a cave in traps the team, another exit must be found…but the team is about to discover that they aren’t alone in the cave, and the horror is growing.
Directed by Bruce Hunt, The Cave is a horror adventure film. The movie was released to negative reviews and a weak box office.
I didn’t really have much interesting in The Cave. I heard a ton of buzz about The Descent, saw The Descent, and enjoyed The Descent. I didn’t really have any compelling reason to watch a rotten version of that film and skipped The Cave…and watching it now, I should have just watched The Descent again.
Jin…at least this is a real monster instead of that smoke thing from Lost
The story has a weird set-up. The reasons for going into the cave are pretty weak and the idea that a group of scientists would go with these skilled diver on the first pass seems unlikely. Unlike The Descent, the characters kind of blend together and don’t have much in the way of personalities. When the monsters begin attacking, you don’t care much.
The movie sets up a debate between the two generic brothers played by Eddie Cibrian and Cole Hauser. Cole gets the meatier role as the character who is being transformed into one of the monsters, but until this starts happening, the brothers aren’t distinguishable enough. Lena Headey is ok as the head scientists, but it seems obvious that she’s going to be one of the survivors.
The face off you weren’t really waiting for…
The movie is set in a cave but doesn’t utilize the claustrophobia enough. You have characters diving, digging, and things collapsing, but it doesn’t provide enough horror. The toothy monsters are shown a lot but they aren’t as horrific as the humanoid creates of The Descent. I think I’d rather have them just be monsters than mutations.
The Cave is a rather dull horror film that didn’t need to be. There are all the elements of a good horror film, but the elements never come together. The movie was hedging its bets that it would work and ended with a twist that could have let a sequel happen if the movie had been a success. The Cave literally could have gone deeper and darker…and since it didn’t, The Cave isn’t worth exploring.
