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Cole Hauser, Morris Chestnut, Piper Perabo, Daniel Dae Kim, Eddie Cirbrian

As an audience member, there is nothing more frustrating than when a film with an intriguing premise fails miserably to present an appealing, or in this case horrifying, story with an intentional direction. With direction, the audience gets a purpose, a sense of reason for watching the film. When the reason fades away, the interest in the story wanders in different directions. One possibility is to begin the nitpicking of the flaws within the film while others might simply cease the viewing. The Cave presents a captivating introduction that in due course abandons the viewer in its feeble attempt to fight for survival. ***

The Cave begins with a fascinating flashback into the Cold War in Romania some 30 years ago, which introduces the audience to the scary element of the story – a deep cave. After a difficult climb up the Carpathian Mountains, a group of treasure hunters arrive to their destination, a remote and long forgotten church. An ancient and secret atmosphere seems to linger around the church, as these men enter the religious domain. The walls of the basement have ominous reliefs of fanged and horned human skeletons while the floor is dressed in an extensive arabesque portraying demonic creatures. The audience must be brain dead not to sense the overwhelming atmosphere of lurking danger combined with the history vampirism in the Carpathian region. Despite the symbols perilous horror, the treasure hunters detonate a bomb to examine the possibility of a treasure, which leads them to a gigantic cave system below. This leaves the viewer with a potent tone that almost anything can appear from the depths of the Carpathian Mountains. ***

Swiftly the film switches gears, as it jumps to present time. The geological scientist Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) has uncovered the old cave system, after fallen rocks covered its opening 30 years ago. Once below, he discovers that the cave system has several sections underwater, and he therefore hires the best cave divers in the world to help with the exploration. Jack (Cole Hauser), the cave diver’s leader, eagerly accepts the assignment with his crew’s mutual approval. However, they would not have accepted the assignment, if they knew what evil dangers were lurking in the seemingly bottomless cave. ***

The opening creates a good base for a story, which is about the only thing the film has to offer. With the build up the story had numerous alternative directions to choose from, but predictably, the expedition turns into a hide-and-seek horror tale that follows a similar path of the 1979 sci-fi horror film, Alien, which caused mass panic throughout the American theaters during its initial release. Unfortunately, The Cave does not provide this kind of experience, even though the initial suspense might indicate this. Instead, the film generates a travelogue in its tone, as it displays how they will get from point A to point B with the least amount of casualties. There are some additional ideas that pop up, but these do not increase the suspense, or drama within the story. ***

The Cave presents a rather disappointing horror experience. It simply shows the audience what happens, and does not generate a thoroughly tense and apprehensive environment. There are some moments where the audience will jump, but these scenes do not build up a comprehensive frightening milieu. It merely feels as if the film tries to evoke suspense through the characters’ quest for survival, but the characters do not seem important enough to gain the audience’s support. Some of the positives within the film are the sounds and visuals, which show that they had some terrific knowledge on the set as the film looks and sounds amazing. The film even generates an internal desire to succeed, but overall feels rather uninteresting. *** ---

Nicely detailed and crystal-clear image emerges through the 2.35:1 widescreen enhanced DVD. The dark scenes show a very solid level of blacks while colors accentuate the contrasts within the scenes. Sadly, I must report some scenes have noticeable amounts of edge enhancement. ***

A spectacular aural experience awaits the audience on this DVD through the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, which allows the audience to hear the tiniest of sounds. The falling of small rocks and odd distant sounds from the rear speakers fills the viewing room with creepiness. However, these sounds do not save the overall poor horror experience. *** ---

Three extras fill the special feature section on this DVD, which begins with a documentary Into the Cave. This documentary presents a fascinating world under the earth, which are the water-filled caves that exist in the world. Here the audience gets to follow an expedition to Florida’s High Springs while the camera reveals some amazing footage. Designing Evolution: Tatopoulos Studios brings the viewer to the creation of the beasts in the film, as he puts it “The most scary creatures, I have seen ever, are creatures with a little bit of humanity in them.” It presents the artistic process and the technical aspect of monster making. The extras end on the note of a rather large number of previews including films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Dust to Glory, and Open Season. *** ---

After having heard the ideas by the writers and the filmmakers, I must say that The Cave might be two drafts away from a good cinematic experience. The ideas and concepts are present; but the follow through seems to be missing. There were moments in the film where I really liked it, but in the end it left me disappointed. I am not upset for having seen it, but I wish it was far better. It might be worth a rental, if the viewers are into the whole being hunted by a monster idea. ***