The Cave (2005)

Elevator Pitch: A bunch of scientists and cavers descend into a cave system in the mountains of Romania on a scientific expedition. Unknown to them back in the time of the cold war a bunch of plunderers had forced their way into the cave system but their use of explosives had caused a landslide, trapping them in the caves. The explorers are also trapped in the cave system by a landslide and so are required to keep gong forward to try to find a way out. But they find that there are unknown creatures in the caves, including a parasite which can invade and change their bodies, and large predatory creatures which stalk them.

Content: No sex or nudity but a bit of smoking and drinking at times. We see the Cold war people get trapped in the caves. The cavers are seen out at sea supported by a single small ship. One of them can hold his breath for a long time. They travel by Russian helicopter to the site of the cave and then down they go. From that moment on they are seen struggling through the cave systems the dialogue most consisting of “Let’s go” and “Are you alright?”. It is difficult to see what I going on because mostly they are in the dark until they get to a cave which has gas flares in the floor. 

A View: To start with I was quite impressed with the presentation and the underwater stuff but as time went on this became a bit dull, and honestly I don’t have the best facial recognition in the world so all the young men looked very similar and never developed any character. And of course a lot of the time they were wearing diving gear, hence as they were picked off by the creatures I was unable to care about them, nor did I really care whether they got out. But it was not awful so you could have it on while doing something else.

Additional Info: Bruce Hunt, the director had been second unit director on many major features by then, but this film is his first and last as primary director.