A scene after the gruesome, untimely death of her husband and daughter in a car accident (for which she was to blame), Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) awakens, healing in a hospital bed. She springs upright, walks out into the hallway and notices that the lights in the seemingly endless corridor are shutting down on her one by one, enveloping her in darkness. She starts to run, the shadows threatening to overtake her at every step. But will she be swallowed up by it or can she escape? It’s a cool, visual precursor to the rest of the film… as later on Sarah will without a doubt find herself in the same sort of situation. Sure enough, a year removed from their whitewater rafting trip (the accident took place immediately afterwards) Sarah is lured into a cave diving expedition with five of her extreme sports-loving mates as a sort of soul-cleansing, friendship-renewing experience. But the girls get rerouted into some uncharted portions of the cavern, courtesy of their friend Juno’s (Natalie Mendoza) unwise efforts to have the girls discover a new path they could name after themselves. Then they meet a white, ghoulish creature in the cavern depths, shit hits the fan and bodies begin dropping like flies. From there on, director Neil Marshall puts his head down and races towards the hell-raising, bloody finish line just as Sarah had opened the film. It’s a great little tale of terror that thankfully is largely grounded in reality (even its creatures have an authenticity to them that puts the vampires in the much higher-budgeted I Am Legend to shame). Sure, there is a bit of an over-reliance on “jump out at you” scares in the first half and a couple of – obviously supporting – characters who do some typically idiotic things to get themselves hurt and/or much worse. But the film is technically sound, it’s tough and keeps the story speeding along. Plus Marshall is able to capture some startling images, even while his film is drenched in darkness. I can only imagine how much better this film would have played on the big screen, surrounded by the theater's blackness, with only the flash lights and flares to light the way.
2 comments:
Yeah...haven't been on in awhile...I know. I'll be on more regularly now that I have a computer at home. Anywho, I love this movie. Watching it in the theater was fantastic. In the showing before us, a lady actually ripped her earring out because she was so frightened. That's awesome. I hope you saw the Director's Cut Mulligan. Not much is different, but the ending is so much better.
Ending Spoiler Warnings
Hey pengin, good to have you back... I was afraid we'd lost ya.
I did see the Director's Cut I believe (the one that ends back in the cave anyway). Gotta say I probably prefer that ending as well, although like Marshall said in an interview about the other cut... "Just because she got away doesn't make it a happy ending." Haha.
Mean little bastard of a film and a great exercise in genre filmmaking. I think I remember you guys telling me that earring story at the party... but I didn't recall that it was from this film.
Definitely fits though. Damn.
Post a Comment