Claustrophobic terror!

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2005)

Prologue:Sarah is an adventurous type of girl with a taste for outdoor sports, after a white water rafting trip with her girl friends she is picked up by her husband and daughter,body language tells us they are having marital problems,they begin to argue in the car and before we know it they are in a very spectacular car crash which leaves Sarah's daughter dead. One year later Sarah is still not over her loss but never the less she sets off to the Appalacions for her next adventure, a trip down a rather large cave.Once in the cave the same group of girls marvel at its beauty and begin immediately to descend through very tight holes indeed.Sarah is the last one through on of these tunnels but gets stuck, but in freeing herself the ceiling of said tunnel collapses leaving all six girls trapped in the darkrevelation No1.the girls find out that they are not in the cave they were supposed to be in and hence nobody knows they are there.the cave is unchartered so they have to search for another exit before their light runs out. Revelation No2:very soon they realize they might not be alone and that finding an exit might just be the least of their worries.To say any more might ruin the surprise.
Review:with some SPOILERS BELOW
Well I never did catch this at the Cinema so I was delighted to pick up my copy over the weekend and after the splendid Dog Soldiers and nearly universal praise for Marshalls follow up film, my anticipation was growing by the day.So is it scary.well yes.First off, This film is not for anyone with claustrophobia, my breathing was erratic watching them struggle in very tight spots, this part of the film is superb and then to compound the girls misery they meet the inhabitants of the cave who feed on all sized animals and bring them back to their lair. These creatures are blind half human/half Gollum like things who track down their prey just like a bat or so we are told.When these creatures do turn up the gore factor really kicks in as they pick off the girls one by one. I had a bet with the other people I was watching it with about how many of the girls would actually survive and I am still not too sure whether or not I won because the ending is such a shocker and also quite ambiguous..or is it?.......My one gripe with the film is that they showed the "creatures" far too soon a little more tension on the "is there something out there or not" question would have been nice. 8/10