Middling thriller; better than 'The Cave'

Rating: 5/10 (2 August 2006)

Basically, just an all-female version of 2005's "The Cave," in which a gaggle of ladies, led by the adventurous Juno (Natalie Mendoza), jaunt off to various extreme diversions and discover a world of terror beyond their imaginations.
We see the group, including Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), Beth (Alex Reid), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), Samantha (MyAnna Burring) and Holly (Nora-Jane No one), in the beginning, white water rafting, before a horrible accident takes Sarah's husband and daughter away. Other than Mendoza, all of these actors are British, so I've never heard of them before. But they do a good job in their rather limited roles.
A year later, Juno (who has never gone to see her "friend" in the hospital or anywhere else), decides what they all need is a little recreation time exploring a cave in the Appalachian Mountains. Why the other women, all seemingly intelligent professionals, follow her is beyond me.
Of course, this being a spelunking film, nothing can go right, and we know they will be menaced by strange, mutant-like creatures (see, once again, "The Cave"). Things go bad right away when Juno takes them top the wrong cave; then an earthquake seals their only means of egress (that they know of). Later, they are accosted by annoying little creatures that have adapted to the dark, can crawl on the walls like flies, eat flesh and look like they could be Gollum''s backwoods cousins.
The film is also very bloody. Let's me give you an example if I can. In one scene, Sarah actually fights one of the beasts in a POND of blood. With people and monsters having their bones broken, eyes gouged out, being burned, eaten, crushed, smashed, stabbed, bludgeoned, dismembered and sliced apart, this certainly earned it's "R" rating.
But despite critics and others claiming how scary it is, I just cannot agree. Yeah, it's gory all right, and sure there are some frightening moments, but these are mostly due to stuff jumping out at the characters on screen. After a dozen so of these "innocent" occurrences (i.e. birds, bats, the other girls, etc.), when the real horror comes, you're pretty much immune.
To me, it would be terrifying enough just to be trapped in a cave with no way out. That would probably make an interesting film. Why insert some make-believe "monster" in the story? What's the point?