Two things - one: this film is nowhere near as bad as some say. Of course, that doesn't make it good, but I enjoyed it.

Second - the prop used to show the strength of communications signal when the first scout explores the cave system is in fact a silver Korg guitar tuner! Not worth mentioning usually except that it is shown in close up several times during this sequence, with the row of red lights normally used to show how close to the note the guitar string is representing here the strength of the signal from the first scout diver...

You can freeze the DVD on one of the closeups to see the words "Cents" and "Hz" and the note names E A D G B E written on the tuner. Classic.

Now that's what I call cheap props for an expensive film. Incidentally, the Korg tuners are very good - at tuning guitars.

What differentiates "The Cave" from other horror films is the setting. The plot takes place mostly in a large cave, some of which is underwater.

By far, the best element of this film is the underground scenery. The sets are realistic, with spaces and formations that one might see in certain large caverns. And, the film nicely conveys a sense of vertical scale, as we watch cavers climb rock walls, and explore huge rooms with towering ceilings.

The problem here is that the film's director is so committed to an action plot that the camera rarely stays in one scene long enough for the viewer to have a sense of place. We thus forgo the thrill that an underground environment could provide. There's no feeling of amazement, no claustrophobia from tight crawlways, no real fear of any kind. The film's fast pace, combined with characters we barely know and care nothing about, thus dilutes the intended suspense.

The cinematography is flashy and very technical. The lighting is appropriately subdued with interesting colors and unusual camera angles. The background music is somewhat intrusive. Dialogue is weak. And the actors, who appear to be in their twenties, are all photogenic, straight out of central casting. The monsters, what we see of them, seem slightly hokey.

Overall, "The Cave" will appeal to viewers who like horror films set in unusual environments, wherein the pace is super fast, and there is a ton of action. Viewers looking for a credible story will need to exit the cave ... quickly.

Truth is, that's all one needs to say about this low-budget suspenser about a group of spelunkers and scientists following a mysterious passage deep into the earth, long hidden beneath an ancient church in Romania. They quickly run into malformed creatures that exist only in the darkness, and get picked off one by one as they race to find a way out. The creatures are not as scary as the ones in "Pitch Black" or even "The Relic." There is a much better movie buried here (pun intended) involving some very tense and exciting sequences as the spelunkers work their way through various caves and passageways and waterways, and climb up and down steep rock walls. But the clichéd monster movie keeps getting in the way. And in the end, it doesn't help that each character is a walking cliché seemingly right out of "The Core." I would gladly watch "The Cave" a second time, but only for the cave exploration scenes. The ending has a nice, slightly twisty touch.

I went into this movie expecting just your average creature feature akin to Pitch Black, and I wasn't let down. It is, indeed, just your average creature feature. It's not the next best thing to Aliens, but it's not the travesty most reviewers here are making it out to be either.

The Cave is a fun popcorn flick. There's no really deep plot or amazing acting talent. What this movie does have is a few very intense, suspenseful moments, which is only aided by the very dark and claustrophobic atmosphere of the cave. It also has your average thriller twist at the end which I did not see coming.

The cinematography and directing by first-timer Bruce Hunt is surprisingly well done. His background as assistance director for the Matrix films and Dark City is apparent here. While he's no Spielberg or Cameron, he keeps the camera angles interesting, and there are scenes within vast, tall rooms in the cave that are quite breathtaking. One complaint, however, is that he chose to follow other directors mistakes in jarring the camera in a very frenetic and sickening manner back and forth whenever one of the characters is being attacked by the creature. This is not only very annoying and disorienting, but is IMO just a trick to cover up the poor creature fx.

Speaking of the FX, I have to say I'm 50/50 here. Sometimes they looked good, and sometimes they looked like they were from a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. The creature effects that looked good were the closeups, which utilized real models. These looked quite realistic. But far away shots of the CGI creatures are not so impressive.

If you want to sit down on a Friday night and just have fun, then pick up The Cave.

The opening sequence with a group of men breaking into an old monastery is wonderful. Weird forms in the walls and floors promise that the place has been guarding some terrible secret. Unfortunately an avalanche/earthquake destroys the building and send the men into a deep dark cave where there are monsters. Some years later the ruins are being excavated and the cave is discovered. Its so big that there might be something there, especially since there appears to be a river of some sort that runs a hundred miles underground. A team of specialists is brought in and soon everyone is trapped underground and underwater, including the beasts.

For the early portion of this movie I was a bit confused by the critical drubbing that this movie took. Sure it wasn't the best movie ever, but it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately as time went on I began to get very lost, I got to the point where I wasn't sure what I was seeing. The problem is that the film is very dark and its often filmed in tight shots that re-enforce the claustrophobic nature of where the cast is suppose to be. Worse everyone in the cast blends together so once everyone got underground and in similar wet suits I had no idea who anyone was except there was a blonde girl, a brunette girl, an old guy, a black guy, a Japanese guy, and a bunch of white guys. The combination of the dark confused camera work with the clone like cast had me rapidly lose interest because I had no idea what was going on or who anyone was. I got to the point where I stopped caring. To be honest I got lost as to what was going on and stuck with it just to see the monsters.

Its a shame the film making isn't better or more coherent since the monsters are mostly quite good. These beasts are what makes the movie worth seeing. Sure there are some that look like rubber toys but some of the big guys look absolutely stunning. They are destined to become legends once the movie hits home video.(I can see the toys now) Should you see this? If you like great monsters yes, you'll want to see this. If like horror movies, you can give it a try, but understand its just an okay horror movie, not anything more. If you want a great movie find something else.

30 years ago a group of explorers entered an immense cave system under a church in Romania. The church caved in and the explorers were trapped, never to be heard from again. Flash forward to present day, where a geological expedition comes across the mouth of the cave. They call in an experienced group of cavers to map the place out, but an underwater passage way collapses, sealing them over a mile underground with no hope of being rescued. They begin searching for a way out, only to come to the realization that they aren't alone; not only are there bizarre, undiscovered creatures, but also the group of explorers from three decades ago, who are no longer quite human… I just got back from seeing this in a near-midnight show. There were a total of 9 other people in the theatre, not a good sign really, and combined with the almost exclusively rotten IMDb reviews I wondered if I'd made a mistake. Deciding not to waste my eight bucks and ride the film out, I actually enjoyed what this flick had to offer: A claustrophobic atmosphere, stunning photography, plenty of action, cool monsters and nifty special effects. This is the directional debut of Bruce Hunt, a former second-unit director on the Matrix films and 1998's "Dark City". While he handles some of the dialogue scenes awkwardly, he certainly knows how to make the film LOOK good. Man, this flick is GORGEOUS! Not only are the cave sets great (fantastic production values on this one) but their lit perfectly (and surprisingly realistically). Kudos to cinematographer Ross Emery for giving this flick the visual kick it needed. As for the actors, just about everyone here does well, especially Cole Hauser and Morris Chestnut. The only weak actor here is Piper Perabo. Sure, she's pretty, but she really, really needs to develop some ACTING skills. Then there are the creatures. We never get a lingering look at them, but they are COOL. I'm glad the creatures were mostly created with puppets and prosthetic instead of CG (what little CG there is was mostly limited to shots of the creatures flying), it was a wise move by the filmmakers. Effects artist Patrick Tatopoulos, who also handled the creatures in "Independence Day", "Pitch Black" and "Underworld", has done a great job as usual. Some people have called Tatopoulos the next Stan Winston, and based on the work he's done so far in his career, this very much might be true. Also worth noting is the score by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, which, though often low-key, is pulse-pounding and exciting and keeps the action flowing nicely. The ending is your typical twisted horror ending, but hey, it works anyways.

Is "The Cave" a masterpiece of modern film-making? No. Would it have been better if it had had an R rating and more gore? Most certainly. Still, this summer creature feature is more entertaining than I expected it to be, I came in praying I might get at least a LITTLE enjoyment out of it and in the end I got more than I expected to. Enjoy!

6.5/10.

This wasn't a bad movie if you like creature flicks. It isn't original, but it does nothing badly and is interesting enough to spend 1.5 hours with.

Firstly: why is it that the entire team consists of hunks and babes? Even the scientists are good looking chicks. Oh well, we'll just have to suspend our thinking and just accept that actors have to be good looking these days, even if their roles completely rule out looking like a supermodel.

As for the movie itself: the action, plot (if there is any to speak of), effects and direction are OK, as is the acting.. Once again, nothing special, novel or interesting but not bad either. The editing was decent except for the action shots. Why does every editor and/or director think that they are doing an MTV clip these days? Keep the camera still! If you think I can see what's going on in random .3 second bursts of film, you're wrong. So irritating.

The effects are OK. Although at times the caves are lit in ways that are impossible for the little flashlights to accomplish, the set is generally dark enough to be realistic. The caves look real. The monsters are not that good but they are almost never shown completely, and in doing so they are acceptable. I do wish the movie had more gore though. Being, as almost all horror movies these days, PG-13 to cash in on teenage kids' money, it does not show any gore besides some scratches and some ugly but very brief ceature shots.

Final comment: I wish the movie had revolved around the first cave expedition that is shown during the introduction titles. They seemed a hell of a lot more interesting than that group of supermodels who came in later. Real men, real people, driven by greed. Oh well.

Decent action, decent thrills. Not bad to kill some time with.

I saw this movie yesterday night, after going through my other collections and its usually IMDb that provides me motivation of either to watch something or chuck it. So i went through the reviews at IMDb and found that it wasn't highly rated. Still i decided to give it a try as i did not have anything else to watch......and i must say this movie is well made right from the start be it the acting,the choreography,the locations....everything was perfect. The only thing i found wrong was that the characters details were shallow but even then i found this movie amazing.

All i want to say is that reviewers must not go along with the herd if some people criticize then they should as well. This movie deserves the recognition and the people who made it possible as well. Hence i would recommend people to watch this and not go according to the rating earlier shown.

Thirty years ago, in the Carpathians Mountains of Romania, a group of explorers blows an entrance to a cave hidden under a church, but the explosion causes a landslide and they become trapped inside. In the present days, the expedition leaded by Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) and his assistant, Dr. Kathryn (Lena Headey) are exploring the place and they find the access through an underwater river, requesting the experienced cave divers team leaded by Jack (Cole Hauser). Dr. Nicolai discovers that, in accordance with the local legend, the church was built to seal the cave as a display of God's protective power, and that Templar Knights entered the cave to fight winged demons. When the group reaches a cave though a tunnel one mile below and three miles in, a creature attacks one of the members and his breathing apparatus explodes, collapsing the tunnel and trapping the group in the cave. Sooner they realize that they are the rescue team and they have to find an exit to survive from the attack of the monsters.

"The Cave" is a predictable rip-off of Alien. If the viewer sees the trailer, as I did, he knows the whole story, and will only bet how many, if any, of the characters will survive in the end. This movie entertains because of the locations and the good cast. I am a fan of Lena Headey and her beauty is a good reason to see this film. The conclusion is a hook for a sequel, as usual. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Caverna" ("The Cave")

I give it an average "5" because it's an average movie. Not really bad, not really good. Just not really ANYTHING. It just sat there and didn't really do anything. As a "man against the elements" movie, it was at least interesting. As a "creature feature," it was completely dull and unoriginal. The characters were one-dimensional - you wouldn't care about any of them.

Rather than letting us spend the time with these characters to learn how and why they are so close-knit, the script writer simply had one of the characters say, "We're like a family." - OK, if you say so . . . then why does no one in the group shed a single tear when people start dying? Characters move from death scene to death scene as if they are just losing casual acquaintances - but wait, she said "they are like a family." OH, I get it - because most family members can't stand each other - OK, now it makes sense! Anyway - if they had lost the monsters, gotten some better actors and a better script, and simply made a movie about cave divers lost underground having to band together to get out, this might have been a decent movie. As it is, the "escape the cave" element is never really richly developed, and instead the focus seems to be on "scaring" you, which it never does, or "wowing" you with action and effects, which it CERTAINLY never does.

In the end, a wasted opportunity, with the only redeeming feature being the nice sets and photography. Wait till it comes to cable, dudes!

A simple premise ripe with potential for an effective horror movie: a group of characters - played by, among others, Piper Perabo, Cole Hauser and Daniel Dae Kim (Lost's Jin) - trapped in underground caves with monsters. Sadly, execution is dull and formulaic; there is no atmosphere, plot brings protagonists from point A to point B and then C, unceremoniously dispatching a couple in every step of the process.

Character development is terrible: just a bunch of screaming dudes (and gals) running around in the dark and jumping in subterranean rivers. Halfway through, The Cave introduces a subplot about characters infected by the monsters: a promising opportunity to play with themes like paranoia and betrayal, like in Carpenter's The Thing. Unfortunately the movie does so little with this element, and the characters involved are so inane, that it never works.

Visually, The Cave boasts some remarkable underwater photography, while the creatures look passable but generic, a mishmash between the monsters of Aliens and Pitch Black.

What about the pure "fear" factor? This is neutered, watered down material - not offensively bad, but the kind of stuff you can easily fall asleep while watching. I guess The Cave could be used as a litmus test: if you find this scary, you will be scared by pretty much *EVERY* other film labeled as a horror.

If you want something genuinely chilling with a similar premise, watch Neil Marshall's brilliant The Descent instead.

4/10

Much like "The Descent", released the same year, i.e. people getting knocked off in a cave, one by one. In the said movie it's Gollum-like creatures, and in "The Cave" it's the zillionth rip-off of the "Alien" creatures.

After the less-than-exciting intro we are introduced to the numerous characters (all dullards), whose faces all look alike (apart from the women) and this problem only gets worse once they're all in the cave, where it's often anybody's guess what is happening to whom and where and who says what to whom.

It's your standard monster-movie fare: we start out with a dozen people (or thereabouts) and end up with a handful of survivors. And guess what? Lena from "300" survives and leaves a door open for a doubtlessly breathtaking sequel! My palms are already wet in rapt anticipation.

I sometimes wonder how these clueless filmmakers manage to stretch a wafer-thin plot such as this to 90 minutes.

I just recently saw this movie and I really didn't think it was everything that it was hyped up to be. I was under the impression that this movie was about finding some kind of "demon on Earth" buried deep in a cave. This was far from the movie I saw. The beginning of the movie began in a church which implied biblical anomalies. I actually go caving and was impressed by the visual effects used to recreate the cave areas. The stalagmites and stalactites were impressive. The storyline was, in my opinion, lackluster. I felt like I was watching one of those movies made for people with less than a 10 minute attention span. The creature effects were decent. The creature design was semi-unique with a basis of a bat gone wrong.

My vote for this movie was a 5 out of 10. Worth renting but don't buy it.

We start off in Romania 30 years ago where a group of men have decided to go hunting for a Cave that is rumored to have been the place of a fight between demons and templar knights. When they try to crack open the entrance they find out that they may have used too much dynamite and are buried in the cave along with tons of rubble. We then go to the present as scientists are investigating the same location and trying to see if the cave is there. Well they find it and bring in some cave divers to help investigate.

From there accidents occur and they end up being stuck in the cave also. The Cave is one of those monster movies that pisses me off. We get some rather cool looking monsters that pick off our cast one at a time but we rarely see them. I understand to build tension for the first several kills it is good not to show what the creature looks like only quick shots or images (shadows even) but when you are reduced to showing the creatures for about 15 minutes of running time that just sucks. Another complaint is the PG-13 rating. Right there you have neutered the film. This means there will be no bloody decapitations, no limbs being ripped off or severed or any squishy stuff unless it is from the monsters (made famous by the lame duck Aliens vs Predator). This seemed to really hamper several of the death scenes as they could have been more menacing.

So the 2 things about monster movies that is cool 1) The Monster Design and 2) The Gore are kept to a minimum so what do we get, lots of exploring underwater caves.....yeah. Is it all boring? No they do a good job of handling this and the characters, for the most part, are not annoying but its the fact that this is a monster movie and not a cave diving National Geographic special that really will get to you.

In the end this movie does some things right some things wrong. In the end its is just there and when its just there its average so I give The Cave: 5/10: average monster flick, with an R rating and more of the beasties on screen (which did look cool when seen) this "coulda a been a contenda" but falls flat.

In conclusion: If you are going to see one Cave Monster movie see The Descent.

The Cave is out now on DVD.

The scariest thing about this horror movie is that the end alludes to a sequel. 'The Cave' is really a disappointing action movie. A team of cave and undersea researchers go to Romania (one of these inexpensive places to make a movie, for now at least) and following a destroyed church enter in a cave that proves to be a realm of underground monsters. Or are they daemons? The movie never decides if it wants to be action, science fiction, or horror, it is a mix of all without salt or fun, and acted in a wooden manner. The best thing about the movie is the cinematography, but even the dark landscape of the cave becomes soon boring, because the film lacks pace and the characters are simply not interesting. Waste of time.

The new thriller The Cave is inspiring! It's stupendous! Incredible! It will reaffirm even the most jaded movie goer's faith in the power of cinema and film schools all around the country will become overloaded with impressionable youth now newly inspired! At least, that's what would be said if Screen Gems offered ten burlap sacks stuffed full of Ben Franklin's to any willing corrupt movie reviewer.

Unfortunately the actual movie of The Cave is easily one of the worst of 2005, if not the sole possessor of such a coveted spot. Every single cliché that can exist in the "monster horror" genre is exploited to no end, and despite the lack of ambition the screenplay still manages to make very little sense.

That's not to say screenwriter's Michael Steinberg and Tegan West are the only ones worthy of blame. The acting is especially caught red-handed, showcasing amazing skills ranging from dead-pan delivery to dulled empty gazes. Whenever a character dies the real laughs begin, and lead actor Cole Hauser appears to be bored out of his mind.

It's not a surprise though. Hauser already did Pitch Black, another sci-fi creature feature very similar to this one except in the quality of the end product. Piper Perabo cannot be forgotten, either. Playing Charlie, she is a special standout because of the authenticity she lends to her character. Why aren't real genius scientists ever so hot and scantily clad? Or dumb? The real star of the show though is director Bruce Hunt who lavishes poorly lit sets and incomprehensible editing on his unsuspecting audience. Previously a second unit director, it is clear Mr. Hunt isn't quite ready for the big leagues yet. Instilling no mood or sense into his feature debut, The Cave stutters along painfully in search for cohesion or even a good scare.

Its okay Bruce, the University of Toledo has a nice film program. Maybe you should check it out.

Sadly, the rest of the movie isn't even worth talking about. The effects are pathetic and seldom used; the plot twists are, well, non-existent. The characters act in completely unreasonable ways and there are lapses of logic that require a bit too much suspension of disbelief, even for a movie about a cave full of supernatural beasts.

Best of all, the action scenes appear to have been shot by a man with severe epilepsy and the editor was most likely eaten alive by a shark before finishing. Far-fetched? Maybe, but it would explain why The Cave is edited and paced the way it is.

To be fair, though, it must be kept in mind that a movie such as The Cave isn't meant to be an award winner or a life changer. However, when all is said and done there is still a difference between entertaining and just plain bad.

Talent, and more importantly passion, can make even the driest overdone ideas interesting again, and even the average B-movie can have a certain magic to it. Sometimes a night at the movies is just meant to transport and entertain, and there's nothing wrong with finding huge mutated cave dwelling creatures entertaining.

However, in the end there is quite a bit wrong with The Cave. For a movie so devoid of any desire to stand out, it still stumbles at even the most basic levels. From the broadest elements right down to the littlest details nearly ever conceptual choice is flawed and underdeveloped.

Remember, a good creature feature probably won't be great art, but at least it won't be The Cave.

Critic's Conclusion: The tagline proudly proclaims "There are places man was never meant to go." Clearly any darkened movie theatre playing The Cave on end is one of them.

I went to see this movie not expecting much and I ended up getting a whole lot less than I expected. Some divers get trapped in an underwater cave with a couple poorly animated monsters. You don't give a care about any of the characters and you don't root for the monster because the camera work is so bad you never even see it. It's not scary or thrilling. This movie, instead of going in to theaters, belonged as a straight to DVD Fangoria release. The only redeeming qualities were it kept my attention enough and the actors and actresses were not terrible (Though they weren't good either). I recommend you skip this one.

My rating: * 1/2 out of ****.

I saw The Descent and figured I tried The Cave to see if it was as bad as most people said it was. I was not surprised in the least. This movie is hands down, worse then The Descent. The actors seemed just as uninspired in this movie as the filmmakers, and this movie was not scary at all. It had a few jump scenes but nothing that got my heart pumping.

A group of scientists ventured into a cave and discover that they are not alone. Yes The Descent got many of its ideas from this movie, but then I'm not sure if it did or not since the British version of The Descent was out the same year as The Cave.

In comparing the two movies, The Descent is intense and scary as hell, but the Cave was just a yawn fest. It did have some nice scenery and photography, but other than that it has little else going for it. The acting was rather lame, as if all them just phoned there roles in. The Descent however had rather good acting.

In comparing the two films, The Descent is my pick for recent best horror movie involving a cave. The Cave, well just forget about it. It's a good thing I just borrowed it because I would've been rather upset if I had bought this boring horror movie.

If I were to use a "what meets what" type of summary line, it can easily go to three or four lines. We have rock climbing (Vertical Limits), exploration diving (everything by the Bridges brothers and thereafter), bony-type creature (Aliens), enclosed environment (Aliens again and many others), and a standard team of flamboyant explorers, elderly scientist, good-looking woman scientist, a reliable black guy, a gallant Amazon type woman, an Asian (Korean) specialist (photographer here). We have a prologue from thirty year ago that is the key to today's mystery. We have personality conflicts. We have team members picked off one by one. And finally, the evil is not buried in destruction, but lurks around now in the civilized world threatening to strike any time (a must-have device for a sequel). And those are just the few things I remember.

It's standard entertainment and if that's what you're looking for, it's not bad. The cast is assembled from actors you have seen in many other movies but never remember. The one that captures my attention is Lena Headey (the woman scientist), for no other reason than I know I'll meet her again when I watch "The Brothers Grimm" next week. But the sequence that is really worth mentioning is the other woman's (Piper Perabo) battle against one of the creatures, which reminds me unmistakably of the scene in Crouching Tiger with the two women run HORIZONTALLY alone a VERTICAL wall. The heroine here has a little help, from the rock-climbing rope.

I went into this movie with low expectations because of all the negative feedback it was receiving and I left wishing I had listened.

"The Cave" is simply a mess of a horror movie, although the movie isn't scary nor gory. You'll only cringe if you dislike tight spaces and are afraid of being enclosed.

Anyway, the movie suffers from poor acting, a stupid script, and because everything is so predictable every time something happens you'll already know who dies next or what to expect in the end.

Please don't make a mistake like I did and see "The Cave". Wait until "Cry Wolf" hits theaters.

How unfortunate, yet also fortunate, that two films about pot-holing -The Cave and The Descent - should arrive at much the same time. Sadly for The Descent its release in the UK on 7th of July coincided with the very day of the London underground tube/metro terrorist atrocity that killed almost 60 and injured hundreds - not a particularly good night/weekend to pop out to the cinema, especially to see a scary-as-sheesh film about likable women being trapped in a deep, dark, claustrophobic underground caving system. The two movies have virtually the same elements - a half dozen or so characters, lost in a previously unexplored caving system, with no-one outside aware they are trapped down there. Lots of water, caverns, danger... then ultimately some vicious human-like or human-derived creatures determined to prey upon them. Where the two are so different is that The Cave is unreal, entirely unbelievable, more Alien-esquire sci-fi fantasy adventure than horror, or drama. The comparatively minuscule-budgeted British film (filmed in southern England though set in the Appalachians) is five-pair-of-pants terrifying, a heart-stopping shocker so stomach turning that people walk out of screenings early in shock. It knocks off the girls in any old order - you genuinely have no idea what to expect next - surely not her! The Descent is also lit in naturalistic manner, making it all the more scary, unlike the laughably lit Cave which resembles a giant magical Christmas Santa's grotto, with cathedral-sized room after room dazzling in gloriously blue light from... who knows where, while the cavers torches are employed exclusively in artistically lighting up the granite-jawed heroes (each more puppet-like than any Team America / Gerry Anderson / Thunderbirds creation). Fantastic amounts of equipment are carried too, yet despite this the impossibly deep-voiced actors clearly forgot to pack any sense of impending danger, drama, or anything worthy of a horror film - it's strictly PG rated. And in this instance the actors peg out in exactly the order that everyone expects them to - i quickly wrote a list after being introduced to each character, only getting Piper Perabo out of sequence. The Cave script is entirely by-numbers, unlike Shakespeare a room full of chimpanzees would eventually write it in under a week... Take a typical exchange between the 'good buddy' white and black leads that goes; "how many times have we been in this situation before bud?" - "too many" (replies Morris Chesnut). I swear, you could hear my suburban London audience gasp at the obviousness. The scariest thing about The Cave is that at the end there's a clear opening for 'the sequel' - 'The Cave 2: Overground' or whatever. Be afraid, be very afraid... Or instead catch The Descent and be truly afraid, very very very afraid. RR

Dire! Dismal! Awful! Laughable! Disappointing!

Right, your trapped in "The Cave" with several "hard" Men and a Woman or two, your being systematically killed by "Something" and you STILL don't get to hear ANY naughty Grown Up words!!! A 15 Cert' here in England, and you could tell!

The Egos of the "Macho Men" was just too much, pass the bucket I'm going to be sick.

This movie should never be exposed to daylight and ironically, be kept in the darkest, deepest hole in the ground and be forgotten forever. I have a feeling that this description isn't the first time to pop its his head from a hole in the ground.

Just like the film The Cube, it looked like a good concept but was just let down at the last post by, well its self.

This Comment contains Spoilers alright, its called The Cave.

Thanks Bruce.

...and that's NOT a good thing!! Everything The Descent got right, this movie got wrong, i.e. believable characters, characters you CARE for, and monsters for the most part barely glimpsed. Oh, and also the feeling of really being in danger. That never happens in The Cave.

It is also tired and formulaic; starts with something 30 years in the past about some soldiers looking for something in a church or whatever, then they fall into the underground cave, and flash forward, a bunch of mostly good-looking people go looking for...what, exactly?? And, to no-one's surprise, the first to bite the dust are the not-so-good-looking guy and the older guy. 'cause this is intended for young people, so we can't have "ugly" people around for too long, can we?

The weirdest thing is, this movie is PG13, when the only ones I could imagine would enjoy this, are kids UNDER that age. Not even one bare breast or a dirty word ("friggin'" is the closest we get), only some confusing shot scenes of people/beasts fighting.

Oh, and the ending; well, an attempt to leave room for a sequel does not a twist-ending make. Who actually got surprised by this??

Avoid this movie. Watch The Descent instead, it has genuine scares and tension.

The only reason I gave this 2 instead of 1, is because Eddie Cibrian is a looker. If he'd shown some skin, I might have given it a 3.

That's how bad it is. I don't watch movies just because the cast is good-looking, and Eddie Cibrian was the only redeeming thing about this flick.

The Cave showed promise: scientists discover an elaborate subterranean cave system beneath Romania's Carpathian Mountains (home of Dracula). At the beginning, a troop of Englishmen ventures down and is never seen again after they demolish an abbey squatting upon the mouth. Later, a crack team of Americans and Romanians goes down into the cavern, meeting strange creatures at every turn.

What attracted me to the film was the promise of a group of explorers going deeper and deeper into a new realm filled with unexpected monsters, an undiscovered ecosystem beneath the ground. Peril could exist at many turns as it has for explorers entering new country for ages. But the improbable parasite element ruined the film for me. What I wanted was probable peril, science fiction rather than creature-feature fantasy. The film failed to yield this for me.

We're told that the albino mega-fauna they find down there is the result of a parasite that transforms the host into a darkness-loving predator. The parasites look like microscopic jellyfish which, in one scene, attack a grain of pollen. We're not asked to suspend our disbelief: we're shown scientists vomiting cryptobiology and pseudoscience.

The meanest of the creatures turn out to be the English explorers. They have the parasite, of course. Rather than making them look like gigantic versions of human beings (like the parasites turn everything else in the cavern into grotesque parodies of their original forms) the people have turned into jabberwock-like bat men. Instant evolution and mutation. Horns that look like claws on their noses. These creatures hound them to the very end when the whole cave system collapses.

As does the movie.

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

A bunch of divers head into a cave. Not just a cave, The Cave. As they explore the cave, they start to realize that they are not alone. Weird monsters are also hanging out in the cave and want to chow down on some divers. It all sounds like a decent monster flick doesn't it? Rest assured it's as lame as it gets.

"The Cave" should have gone straight to video. If it had, I probably would have been reasonably entertained by its cheesy B-movie antics. I would have expected less of it. Unfortunately, I sat in a movie theater and watched this disaster unfold. PG-13 monster flicks are just no good. You can't show off the blood and guts payoff scenes like you should. Most of "The Cave" is shot in near pitch dark conditions. Almost all of the action scenes are hard, if not impossible, to make out. Even when the monster does attack people, the editing looks like it was done in an out of control blender. "The Cave" has nothing to offer. No decent monster scenes and hardly any action. It can be skipped.