This movie watching occurred because I was flipping channels one day. I confused this film with the movie The Descent and that was the reason that I watched it.
By the way, this blog is just spoilers so if you are genuinely interested in watching this film you might not want to continue reading.
The basic plot is that there is a cave in the Carpathian Mountains that people want to explore and for reasons (or in one case no reason (?) and there are apparently monsters that may eat people (?) or at least infect them with something (?). When the picture opens we come across a group of soldiers who sound British.
I couldn't tell why they were keen on exploring this cave. Is there supposed to be treasure? Is it the tunnel to the center of the earth? Then there was the question of how they heard of this cave in the first place. As I said they all sounded British so why British soldiers come across a cave in the middle of nowhere in the Carpathian Mountains?
I mean the Carpathian Mountains aren't the largest mountain chain in the world nor are they the tallest but still a mountain chain isn't small. The Carpathian Mountains aren't exactly small especially in comparison to humans. It sounded like one of the soldiers came across the cave as a child but there was no further explanation other than that.
The cave is under an old church that has sinister looking murals that appear to reference monsters. Although this isn't very clearly explained the implication seems to be that the church is holding the monsters at bay. Naturally the soldiers decide to blow a hole in the middle of the church floor to open the cave. Not surprisingly the ancient church turns out to be fragile enough that the floor caves in under the soldiers causing all of the soldiers to fall into the cave. Unexpectedly there is an avalanche as the mountain literally falls on the church, trapping the men in the cave. I guess the writers didn't think it would be sufficient to just have the church collapse on the guys, they needed a mountain to fall on them. Whatever.
[This brings me to my logical and sincerely darkly comedic conclusion that "God hates them." For anyone reading this blog I will take time to elaborate and digress before continuing the plot summary of The Cave.
Years ago I made an effort to watch all of the movies on Bravo's Scariest Films list. A) Even though scary movies can scare me I'm a glutton for punishment. B) I was very curious about these films that people felt warranted the distinction of being considered the "scariest" films because they run the gamut of different types of scary.
While I watched the films on and off the list, I found that in a few scary movies that I have watched (one included in the list, the other two came out after the list was compiled) I observed that a few characters have exceptionally bad luck even for a horror picture. Nothing that they did could conceivably save them from their fate for unknown reasons. They just absolutely were not meant to survive and they also seemed to have to suffer extraordinarily dreadful fates that seemed a bit much even for horror pictures.
As a result, in an effort to take away from the horror and my own frustration, I came up with the intentionally darkly comedic idea that "God hates them." Somewhere, sometime, somehow these fictional characters did something so bad that there was nothing and no one who could or would save them from suffering. This of course leads to darkly comical, deliberately absurd ideas of what their respective "crimes" could be considering that in the horror pictures that they suffer in, they all seem to be genuinely nice people who wouldn't even harm a fly.
Mind you, before anyone starts to get heated, please let me add that I consider myself a fairly devout Christian. I take God seriously in general. But I also feel that He has a great sense of humor and surely He will understand that the phrase "God hates them" is a joke as it is intended to be. Obviously if you choose to be offended, I can appreciate that and I apologize.
So, going forth, if you read this blog, know that you will come across the phrase "God hates them" and now you know what that means. Now, back to The Cave.]
After the mountain traps the men, we hear creepy sounds that indicate monsters specifically to the audience. The men of course go "What's that?" Then we hear screaming as the monsters attack. Fast forward to present day. A scientist named Dr. Nicolai (played by Marcel Iures) discovers the caves, realizes that he needs experts so he calls in our protagonists to explore the cave.
In the scientist's case it is somewhat clear why he is interested in the cave in that he is doing scientific research. What scientific research specifically isn't coherently explained but I just assumed he was a geologist or at least a scientist specializing in caves (not sure what those are called so bear with me).
Our heroes (I'm using that word ironically) arrive after demonstrating to the audience that they are very capable divers and cave explorers. They have a nifty gun that shoots sonar (I think) and all they have to do is fire it into caves to get a lay of the caves. The data displays on their guns but also back wherever their computers are and presumably the rest of the team. The team is lead by Jack (played by Cole Hauser) and includes Jack's younger brother Tyler (played by Eddie Cibrian), Top Buchanan (played by Morris Chestnut), Charlie (played by Piper Perabo), Briggs (played by Rick Ravenello), and Strode (played by Kieran Darcy-Smith).
Accompanying them will be a doctor named Kate (played by Lena Headey) and a photographer named Alex (played by Daniel Dae Kim). Tyler is attracted to Kate and that's the most interesting thing that happens when the team first comes together. Once in the cave they set up a camp which is almost immediately affected by the monsters although the first monster that they encounter appears to be a vicious looking mole-like creature with fins, a new kind of possible amphibian.
Strode is our first "stupid" horror victim in that he decides to separate from his dive buddy Tyler and explore a cave. Naturally he gets attacked and possibly eaten by a monster. There's no obvious blood, you can't see anything because the camera moves too much.
I say possibly eaten because (SPOILER ALERT) it later becomes apparent that the monsters may have been men who changed into these creatures after being infected. Honestly anybody most likely would have seen that coming a mile away even if the writers hadn't been kind enough to give you hints. I will say that at least the hints weren't obnoxious meaning one wasn't hit over the head by them.
Tyler is yelled at because he might have a problem of separating from his dive buddies (at the beginning of the film we only see one instance of this behavior and somehow that is supposed to indicate that he is trouble because we never hear of another instance of this happening).
Just prior to Strode getting attacked, Kate and Dr Nicolai observe that there appear to be parasites in the mole creature and another salamander that we don't see (first definite clue again not annoyingly presented). While Strode was attacked he panicked and sent his personal propeller machine (I don't know what they are called but you hold on and steer while it swims for you) flying into a portion of the cave causing the cave to collapse. Jay and Top go to try to find Strode. They find a piece of Strode's scratched up/chewed up (kind of hard to say how he was killed honestly) dive suit. Jay gets attacked but he comes away with some pretty nasty scratches.
They have twelve days until they are missed ( I think that is kind of stupid considering that they are going into a supposedly previously unexplored cave. I mean how is anyone supposed to know that it takes 12 days or less to explore caves in a previously unexplored cave? If this is unknown territory I should think that they would be missed much sooner as people in theory would be concerned about something happening to them "out in the middle of nowhere"). They decide (logically I might add even if they had less than twelve days to be missed) to try to get out another way. They know caves and would therefore know indicators of which way is out so this actually made a lot of sense to me.
Jay is leading. As they follow Jay the audience and the characters are given the impression that "something isn't right with Jay". He acts sort of strangely. I guess the intention was to give the impression that Jay's judgement is off so therefore we shouldn't trust him. Maybe he is deliberately leading them in the wrong direction. Whatever. Not surprising but not done in a bad way.
This leads to conflict. I get it. Team members get lost/killed/eaten something along the way. We learn that some of the creatures can fly. It doesn't appear that they can swim at first and then later Dr Nicolai apparently comes across the one that can swim. After Dr. Nicolai and Charlie are killed/eaten/whatever Kate, Briggs, and Alex lose trust in Jay's leadership and decide to go a different way. Jay, Top, and Tyler go a different way as well.
It is obvious by now that Jay is changing but it's still unclear how much, apart from physical changes. Before parting ways, Kate tells the group that she suspects that Jay is changing into one of the creatures because he was infected when he got attacked. Tyler doesn't want to believe her at first but begins to suspect that she was right after awhile.
Top gets injured due to faulty equipment although the movie implies that it is due to Tyler's carelessness. Whatever. Jay's group finds themselves in a chamber and Jay indicates that at the center of the lake in the chamber is the way out. Tyler decides to go back for the other three. Meanwhile Briggs has been attacked and the other two are running through the cave. Tyler catches up to Briggs after he's obviously mortally wounded. Oddly enough, Briggs's wounds come from stalactites which implies that the monster that attacked him threw him up and onto the ceiling of the cavern.
Either Tyler is not very bright or he's very optimistic in this instance because for some reason despite the extremely obvious severity of Briggs' wounds he still tries to save Briggs. It could be argued that Tyler is just distraught. Whatever. Prior to this instance Briggs and Tyler seemed to regularly bump heads so it didn't make a lot of sense to me for Tyler to be that upset by Briggs' death. But I digress.
Somehow (I couldn't figure this out) Tyler catches up to Alex and Kate. I couldn't figure out how they caught up to each other because Alex and Kate were literally running around through this vast network of caves and Tyler had no way of knowing where they went.
While Tyler was finding them, Alex figured out that the monsters don't like the sensation/sound/whatever of the sonar guns that the team uses to map out caves. He proceeds to use the gun on the monsters for the brief amount of time that he is alive for the rest of the picture. Tyler, Alex, and Kate rejoin Top and Jay in the large cavern. Jay goes to retrieve a tank that the monsters have taken for reasons (?).
To further confirm that the monsters are in fact mutated/infected men the audience observes a tattoo that one of the soldiers from the beginning of the picture had on one of the monsters. The monsters attack killing Alex. Alex's death is the only clear cut death in this picture
. Jay makes a bomb by putting a flare into one of the rebreathers that Tyler had developed. Jay appears to have been crushed by a massive column while fighting a monster. The other three manage to escape.
Later, the three are near what looks like a sidewalk cafe/bistro in a bustling town. Top hops in a cab and leaves. Tyler and Kate have a brief conversation in which Tyler asks Kate if she thinks that those creatures could survive above ground. Kate mysteriously replies that she thinks that they could and that they have been trying to get out. At this point she reveals that she has been infected/turned/is changing/whatever and then disappears in the crowd. Tyler tries to follow her but is unsuccessful. The end.
After watching this movie I read a few reviews about it and I must say that I agree with at least one of them. The review mentioned that the movie seemed confused as to what it was as in was it supposed to be a horror picture, an action-adventure, or sci-fi? I can see why the person felt this way although it didn't phase me much due to the movie as a whole not being good. The acting was not good. The story wasn't great.
Also after seeing Cole Houser in Pitch Black (which I think is a good movie but more on that later) I was bored with seeing him be the "sort of good guy who turns out to be a bad guy" even though they added the element of "he is in fact a good guy" thing.
Perhaps with other actors the movie would have been better but then again other actors had sense enough to read this movie and decide not to do it.
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