The scariest movie I've seen in ages.

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2005)

For a relatively low-budget horror movie this punches way, way above its weight.
Six female friends go on adventure holidays every year, for kicks. On year, one of the women loses her husband and daughter in a terrible road accident. A year (or two?) later, she rejoins her friends for another adventure, as she rebuilds her life.
Tension builds slowly, and without the wisecracking soldiers of Dog Soldiers to keep things flying along, some of the dialogue may seem stilted - but to be fair to director and writer Neil Marshall, some exchanges are loaded with unspoken and difficult emotion and should come across that way.
The performances of the six friends who go caving are all excellent, from warm and caring to stripped-down, bare panic and fear when their jaunt goes wrong.
When they are underground a combination of bad luck and injury leaves their exit barred; hungry subhuman creatures lie in wait ahead. With its claustrophobic surroundings, Marshall has shot the film beautifully. I have not squirmed in my seat this much in the cinema since really, really needing the toilet in Return of the Jedi - but this was from pure discomfort, almost fear. The shocks jolted me, the pain of the characters came right through, their fear cuts to the quick. It's a simple movie which works brilliantly. Marshall has another winner on his hands, and hopefully he'll be making movies for years to come. For the sake of the genre, I hope they're horror movies as he has an innate understanding of what makes them tick.
Horror buffs... The credits are in the same font John Carpenter used on The Thing and Escape From New York, while the score builds from the very same staccato bass sound used in Ennio Morricone's The Thing score.