The Dark

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2006)

I got existential with this film. It reminded me greatly of "The Blair Witch Project" where we see these characters unknowingly entering certain horror..we know what will happen, but they have no idea what certain doom they willingly will be entering. You can not fault anyone but one and that is the guide who takes them into an "undiscovered" tavern; that would be Juno(Natalie Jackson Mendoza). The others believe they are taking a trip into a known cavern, and the fun of entering is very lively on their faces. These thrill-seekers have did all sorts of wild things such as rafting down rough currents over dangerous rocks..but those experiences won't even compare to what waits for them in the dark. We see these young women leaving their off-road vehicles just like those three documentarians about to enter in the woods of Burkettsville, but they will enter a whole other territory where you can not see the sky above.
Sarah(Shauna Macdonald)is the main character of the film for we see what has occurred to her already. Sarah is indeed a tragic character we can latch onto for her husband and daughter were taken from her in an awful car crash. We see the dreams of watching Sarah's daughter blowing out the candles of a birthday cake..this would never happen, but it provides peace when there isn't much in reality. One might ask what the point of this is, but it matters more when one views director Marshall's bleak ending to this film. Sarah follows her supposed guide into what she believes to be a friendly cavern, but never realizes what she will become during that very trip inside a completely different cavern than she was led to believe.
This film shows a sign mid-way as the girls encounter a major problem. They follow a small passageway further into the cavern. When that hole caves in, the girls must find another exit. Once they discover Juno's secret of being closed in a supposedly uncharted cavern, that's when the terror of being trapped starts to swim deep in their minds. That feeling of hopelessness increases when they discover something sinister awaits them as they continue. They will find that this cavern has lots of paths that stop at deep drop-offs where they will have to rope-climb to get from one place in the tavern to another..it's the only way if they seek to find an exit. Once they begin to rope across from one place to get to the other side, there's a grave discovery..someone had once been in the cave when they find a rope-locking device attached in the rock! They are not the first to have been in this cave and the device they find is over 100 years old! Soon, the true horror begins as they travel inside this portion of the tavern and encounter creatures that seem human, but act anything but. They have the appearance of a possible species of bat. They can only detect movement with sound. They don't seem to have the ability to smell or see. That may be any of the women's only way of combating the evil that longs for their flesh. Yes, these creatures are meat eaters! And, when they eat, they enjoy it with a feverish intensity.
Marshall's film is as grim as grim can be. If one group of climbers couldn't make it out, why should the ones we watch escape? There's a glimmering hope when Juno, amongst any that survive the initial carnage that occurs as the creatures run amok on them out of nowhere, finds markings perhaps telling them a possible way out. But, they would have to make it past those creatures which may not have certain senses available, but do move fast and seem to know how to climb all around the tavern.
I started thinking about these women who are not victims by choice because they trusted Juno for whom seemed somewhat trustworthy before this situation. I tried to understand their terror. That hopelessness ran deep within me because these unfortunates have been placed in a dire state with little chance of survival.