THE CAVE

THE CAVE (2005). Director: Bruce Hunt. Written by Michael Steinberg; Tegan West.

In the Carpathian Mountains, a group of men come across an old church on top of an ancient cavern, and are apparently killed by an avalanche. Years later, a new expedition decides to explore this enormous cave, and discover that strange parasites have [very improbably] mutated those long-ago men into weird, carnivorous winged creatures. The leader (Cole Hauser) of this new group has been bitten, and is slowly mutating himself. There is a cave-in and the members of the party have to find an alternate route out of the cavern while trying to avoid not only those big flying monsters but huge eels that swim in the underground river. Sounds exciting, but it's rather dull, despite the busyness and all the hard work that went into the production. There are some decent effects and good sets as well as an occasional striking underwater shot, but the monsters aren't seen very often and don't interact nearly enough with the cast. Even in the climax we never really get a long, clear view at these mutated creatures, who in passing resemble the flying Mayhars of At the Earth's Core and in close-up look like the creatures from Alien. Underwater they seem like swimming pterodactyls. There is a lot of walking and talking and swimming to little purpose. The main problem is that the director just covers the action in a highly uninspired fashion; quick shots come and go leaving the viewer not quite certain of what happened. The acting is competent but the script could have used some work. The booming soundtrack does a lot toward drumming up [often unwarranted] excitement but isn't otherwise memorable. This is one movie that should have premiered on the Sci Fi Channel or Direct to Video.

Verdict: Even monster movie devotees will be disappointed.