Well-crafted thriller

Rating: 8/10 (30 June 2007)

I enjoyed this film because of the attention to detail. For a "monster" movie, it was surprisingly believable (unlike "The Cave"). Many of the "flaws" mentioned on this website are because people didn't pay attention (or perhaps couldn't understand all the dialogue due to the various accents). In fact, this would have worked well without any monsters at all. The cavers show a nice variety of reactions (mostly fear and panic) - I never felt like any of them were acting inappropriately. Suspense is built up well and the few subplots actually contribute to the story. My only criticisms: it is too obvious who will go first and who will remain until the end (or near end); it would have been nice to develop all six of the characters instead of 3 or 4; and there are early sequences where it is hard to tell which person is doing what or where. The last is probably intentional by the director to convey the claustrophobia and confusion but it was still annoying as a viewer. I found myself thinking "Okay, just wait this part out and we'll see who is where."
Also the opening whitewater rafting sequence is fairly weak but don't let the first couple of minutes deter you.