Good movie thriller ruined by a need to throw in a cliché twist every ten minutes

Rating: 5/10 (26 August 2005)

I'm not sure how to write about this movie without talking about spoilers, so I'm just going to plow ahead and mention that THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS, so if you don't want to to know, don't read any further.
This movie is the story of a group of friends who decide to go exploring caves. One of their number has suffered a terrible tragedy in the form of a car crash that killed her husband and daughter. (The accident is simply one of the most jarring moments in movie history and is as big a punch in the face as anything that happens in the rest of the movie). Once the group gets to the cave everything begins to go wrong. Worse still is that it isn't long before they find out that there is something terrible in the cave with them.
I have to say at the outset this is a well made and well acted film. Any problems I have with the film, and I have many, are do to the story line. This is one of those movies that should have been better.
HEAVY SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT I dislike the plot twists in this movie a great deal, its not that they are in and of themselves bad, rather they are of the sort that are so incredibly clichéd or designed to keep the plot moving. First they don't go to the cave they were suppose to because their leader considers it a tourist trap, worse they never told anyone where they went; They never take the guide book on the caves of the area; they seem to lose what ever it is they need moments before they need it. Most amazing of all is the one that shows up about an hour into the movie. Even though its alluded to earlier, the creators of this little thriller have added a race of blind goblins to the mix, in away that seems completely out of left field. Here's a taut movie about a bunch of friends trapped underground upon which they've added some creatures from the road company of The Lord of The Rings. At that point I just threw up my hands and gave up. Its not bad, its just not in line with everything else.
I don't know what to say. This is one of those movies where things would move along on a logical path, except the writer keeps throwing twists at the characters for no good reason other than it movies the plot in the direction he wants it to go. I wouldn't care, but its always when the twist would do the most damage. I also wouldn't care if it wasn't every ten or fifteen minutes, once I could buy, maybe twice, but three or four or five times? It ruins the genuine suspense and feeling that movie naturally creates.
Try this on video or cable. Just don't be rushing out to see it since you may end up disappointed, like I was, at having to watch a good little thriller hobbled by dumb plot twists.