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Plot synopsis:
The film is set in the Kyzyl Kum Desert, Kazakhstan. The opening scenes of the movie sets up the various alliances and tensions between a group of cavers. Five of them - Bailey (Sybil Temtchine), Gannon (Mustafa Shakir), Domingo (Andres Saenz-Hudson), Miranda (Ogy Durham), and Ori (Andrew Caple-Shaw) - are part of a team who have caved together for a number of years, making their living from exploring and photographing new caves and reporting back to the world what they find there. Also involved in this trip are two Kazakh natives, Vlad (Kamen Gabirel) and Slava (Neno Pervan), who the band have hired as guides, and Ambrose (Danny A. Jacobs), who is researching for a book on caving.
It can also be said that there is a ghost with the group - that of Rachel (Cassandra Duarden), a member of the team who died on an expedition in Peru two years prior, and whose story is told in flashback as the movie goes on. The men are killed one by one by a mysterious creature, and just as the two women find the escape route, they are captured. They awaken in the beast's lair naked and wrapped in animal skin blankets where they find photos, belongings and an airplane wing in the surrounding area. After searching further, the two find water, then food, and, while eating, discover that the meat is one of their dead friends. The beast enters, and we discover he was the only survivor of a plane crash, a Russian boy called Peter. He proceeds to brutally kill one and rape the other.

Tags: suspenseful, violence

Review:
The Cavern: 2 out of 10: Blair Witch meets The Cave and gives me a headache.I have something to ask all film schools, could you please teach future directors how to hold a camera steady.
I know it is a cave movie but there is absolutely nothing frightening about watching pitch blackness for minutes at a time.For that matter showing the film upside down doesn't indicate confusion on screen it indicates confusion in the editing booth.A last note to the director I'm sure there was a good reason to have a horribly fake CGI campfire.
You might have wanted to start with spelunking.The Cavern is a pretty bad film, poorly shot with a confusing, improbable and anticlimactic ending..
The movie goes something like this: Run around, run around, someone killed, lots of freaking out and then one of the group yells to "Pull it together" or "Just calm down!" Repeat this as many times as their are characters left.
I kept thinking what a waste of film every time it happened - yes, it does happen more than once if you can believe it.I notice other mentioned "Blair Witch: and it did remind me of that in the way the camera was bouncy.
If you enjoy bad acting, people running through small portions of caves, bouncing cameras posed at bad angles, and people screaming while the screen is in complete darkness, you'll love this movie.
Horror films are a curious thing, sometimes they manage to stumble across a formula that works very well, sometimes they try valiantly to tell a worthy story despite time and budget problems, sometimes they're so bad they're actually kinda fun...and sometimes they're "The Cavern".A good horror/suspense film should contain vagaries that keep you guessing, they should allow you to be interested in the characters and their motivations so that you actually have some sort of reaction when they die.
However, The Cavern chooses instead to introduce elements that work at first, only to be negated by it's own lackluster storytelling.All the characters are completely forgettable and any actual back story that might make any of them even remotely interesting is blurted out within a 30 second monologue, making it impossible to do anything more than laugh as characters are picked off almost at random and on more than one occasion in the least possibly frightening way.(To spoil a scene a bit, one victim is taken during a complete blackout which might have been a little frightening if the sound effect used to indicate his killing wasn't reminiscent of stirring a pot of too thick Macaroni and Cheese) Add to this formula the camera that work makes me think the director saw one too many Nine Inch Nails videos and an ending which in an attempt to be shocking serves almost no purpose but to annoy and confuse the viewer and you have an almost completely unwatchable horror film that fails on every level.I'll be honest with you, if you want a claustrophobic caving horror movie go watch "The Descent", and I feel weird saying that because I didn't particularly enjoy that movie either..
There seems to have been some money behind this film, but it would be impossible to imagine a film this badly planned and executed if I hadn't actually started watching it.To begin with, once we are in the cavern with the characters (the usual young adult stereotypes we've been meeting in horror films since the early '80s), the film is shot almost entirely in close-up.
Ultimately the film has a nauseating, confusing strobe-light effect, with no sense to it until we get to the end.And I won't tell you what 'the end' means - but you will recognize it if you've ever seen the old early '60s Arch Hall laugh fest"Eegah!" with Richard Kiel.But what crazy person would ever want to make a variation on a theme like "Eegah!"'s, long remembered as one of the worst films ever made?!
Here we go: every year or so some people think it is fun to start shooting a low budget film about the scary monsters of the underground, that hopefully will prove to be some sort of a hit.
The end could have been fleshed out better; but all in all, it was a fun ride while it lasted.I would recommend this rental for anyone who wants to understand what it is like to go caving without the benefit of stage lighting.
Oh my god...first let's just act like no one who watches this has ever been underground...then it was just a matter of no budget...the movie, and I shudder to call it that, is crap!
The gore effects have to be in homage to the early works of Peter Jackson, even the foley sound effects are reminiscent of Bad Taste/Dead Alive.It seems there have a been a handful of cave movies in the horror genre in the past year.
If the script was less ridiculous and the actors somewhat more competent, the film could have been quite disturbing as the director definitely has a gift for creating a sense of suspense and claustrophobia.The main reason to watch "The Cavern" is the ending, which is far more sinister and interesting that the main body of the film.
Although the movie used CGI campfires at the start (very odd...surely a real one is cheaper and looks more...well...realistic!) I carried on watching to see what might turn into a better film.
Those moments become tiresome, don't scare due to underwhelming sound and feel like a cheap way to fill up screen time in an already short movie.
The leader's guilt over a previous death added nothing and was never made really clear (as if it mattered).Some good pacing and I did remark during the film that it looked a little Blair Witchy - which is not bad.I watch almost every horror movie that comes out and will continue to do so.
If you want to see a film that you haven't quite seen before, regardless of the other cave movies out there, I would definitely recommend this one.
The acting does not convince at all, the lighting may be close to reality but doesn't work for a movie like this, pretty much every dialogue is useless and then we also have these edless orgies of shaky cam madness.
I really doubted whether to eject the DVD right then or not.I didn't.And i regret.The script stinks, the actors are absolute rookies, even the CGI FX are lousy (e.g. one of the worst CGI bonfires in the whole story of film-making where you can even see an elliptic cropping line chopping the flames square).Accept my advice : get as far as you can from this movie..
Due to this technique and overuse of flashing lights, should put a disclaimer on this movie like they do for video games - "if you are flashing light sensitive.." The rest of the lowdown:Cons - jerky camera, too darkway, way to much screamingtoo long even at 81min, not good!pretty silly storyvery clear at beginning at movie a creature of some type, but due to lighting (or lack of), one cannot even make a remote assumption of what actually is!Pros: - noble attempt at something different by directoracting not horribleI would skip, to irritating, and difficult to watch.
I'd guess that people who hated it are in one of two camps (maybe both): A) people who hated Blair Witch because they got nauseous/confused with all of the shaky camera effects, or B) people who haven't seen many low-budget, direct-to-video horror films, because really if you've seen enough of these movies, you know that The Cavern is WAY, WAY ahead of the game.
The other quarter of the film is just dreadful cheaply filtered exterior scenes, and nausea inducing flashlight shining right into the camera as the protagonists of the film blindly flail and run screaming around in the darkness of the "oooo, sooooo scary cave!".It's difficult to say what exactly the director was trying to hide with the dreadful camera work: was it the sub-par acting?
If Blair Witch caused you any discomfort then this film is a definite no-no.As to the "twist" ending, it's about as shocking as an episode of The Flintstones.I LOVE bad movies.
WithIN aka "The Cavern" starts off slow and has some dialogue and scenes in the beginning which should have been cut from the movie,as they weren't necessary.however, once it gets going, it's actually not a bad movie.i liked the camera work,especially the tight shots in the cavern.also in certain scenes it was hard to tell it where the characters were or if they were moving up or down.
i'm fairly sure it had a very modest budget,yet that didn't detract from the quality of the film.i didn't recognize any of the actors,but they all did a good job and were believable.this was good, since big name actors would have taken the focus away from the story, and taken the viewer out of the movie.the cavern wasn't a particularly scary movie, but it was creepy and suspenseful.I don't recall seeing anything quite like it.there are some scenes which may be a bit to gory for some people and there is one fairly intense violent scene.
the ending was different than i expected, but not in a bad way.the filmmakers managed to fit a lot into the short running time,but i still believe it could have been a bit longer.otherwise,a pretty good, not quite great movie that will keep you entertained.i bought it and have no regrets.definitely worth renting,at least..
To make things worse, the shaky-cam filming style had them linking this film to the immensely hyped "The Blair Witch Project" (that one zero-budget horror-effort that left its mark on contemporary film-making, six years earlier in 1999), so that got them screaming "rip-off!" a second time.
When you - especially with a shoe-string budget like this - can manage to make at least the killings and make-up effects look good, you're already doing an important part of the movie right.
On top of the darkness, with the entire film covered in fluorescent lighting that gives off the look of dizzying claustrophobia by simply making for an overall disjointed affair not getting anything remotely into this one to tell what's happening as the flashing strobe lights alongside the close-quarter camera-shots further hold this one to a nigh- impossible-to-view series of action scenes that can't tell what's going on.
I think the cavern was sometimes somewhat not lighted good, but then again it's most likely what the director knew from a real cave.The cave however works with different things, such as it being a typical Hollywood blockbuster film, but the cavern has this sorta realistic feel to it, more of an open ending to it, it kinda gives the feeling that if such was to happen, then a person wouldn't be able to escape this madman's clutches.So, in that perspective, I think the cavern impressed me.
Still, the movie was quite nice, however the camera shaking at times felt somewhat disturbing, but I think it all contributed to the feeling of being in a real cave, where light doesn't come easy inside, and where one could find himself cut from the rest of the world..
I am very disappointed with this movie and I'll tell ya why.Right until the last ten minutes or so, we are treated to a painfully obvious setup of "team go into dangerous situation and face monster," replete with the lame little "personal past dealing" among some of the generic characters.To the writer's credit, while Hollywood dishes out tons of crap like this and makes every character an idiot wisecrack, this film actually attempted to be serious.Secondly, the acting wasn't particularly good, Mustafa Shakir being the weakest of all, though the women did do a good job of acting terrified -- that is, until it became annoying.But that is not why I am disappointed!
The only exception is one over the top close up on a dismembered body (I think the director had a Fulci moment, there), other than that the gore was used perfectly.And then we come to the disappointment.WHY did the director decide to throw a twist in this film's last ten minutes which took it from the status of run-of-the-mill "group of people getting picked off" fare to something truly and deeply disturbing -- then END it?
You only care about the few characters that make it to the end, the rest are just people (Except one REALLY annoying Russian one) It's hard to tell what ripped off what, because there are MANY similarities with this and The Descent and The Cave, but that doesn't matter because most slashers/zombie movies/ghost flicks rip off each other and end up good anyway, right?
Making a good movie on a low budget is remarkable (like Blair Witch, which I thoroughly enjoyed).
Look at the top rated films of all time for the complete list.) I also noticed that many people gave this a positive vote for being so realistic as far as what it's like inside a cave.
I don't remember the exact quotes, but basically he says: "We were in a cave, the cave flooded, a girl died as our friend watched her drown." You may think I am over exaggerating and being really critical, but that isn't far off from a direct quote, line for line, from the movie scene.Over the next 50 minutes or so, the film takes place in the cave and though the lighting is what I would imagine to be like in a cave, I could have really done without the really fuzzy/hazy look to the film, and the camera shaking is just one that I didn't go for.
(I have really good vision, and after watching the main parts of the film, I felt like I was legally blind.) I was emotionally detached from this movie, therefore the parts that probably should have been scary weren't.
Maybe had I been able to overlook the very slow and poorly acted start to this film, I would have at least been scared, but I don't remember anyone in the dark room even twitching at any of the "action" scenes.The last scene was probably one I will never forget, and that isn't a good thing.
After about 30 seconds of watching the camera jiggle and shake as he rapes her, roll the credits, movie's over.Honestly, if I had to do it all over and I wasted money on renting this movie, I could have saved myself an hour and watch the first scene and last scene of this film and still left with the same thoughts about it that I have now.Those of you comparing this to Blair Witch are way off...
It may be a horror cliche, but splitting up is one of the worst things you can do in a situation like that!So far the movie has been really bad.
Films like Se7en, John Carpenter's The Thing, Funny Games, and even The Descent may not have happy endings, but they all serve an artistic purpose and give the audience something to think about.
In these times of remakes and sequels and film companies trying to cash in on any winning combination of cinematic components, The Cavern has only one relatively different twist on the previous eight cave movies over the last few years, and that twist seems to be taken from an X-File.
When I checked out the review for this film after I'd watched it, I was surprised that there were people giving it good ratings.This is a film of bad camera-work.
I can't believe this piece of garbage actually won awards, which just goes to show the quality of marijuana and other illegal drugs is much better in Australia and other countries than in the U.S.The scenes where the group is running from the "creature" are badly directed, especially the retarded "upside-down-camera", intended to show disorientation, but only coming off as a cheap effect which a first-year film student would be suitably berated for by their teacher.Sadly, this "director" will probably go on to make other movies, more than likely of the same low quality as this "film", since I'm sure he hasn't learned from his mistakes, which on this picture were excessive.If I had my way, the entire cast and crew would be sent up the river for life without parole.
I guess blank film is one way to keep costs down...I suspect the "director" had recently read a book on all the "must-do's" to make a scary movie, and decided to throw them all in - about 20 times each.There are three good things about this film: 1/ It's short at 90 minutes (though still an hour and a half too long!) 2/ All the characters die (after all, it's impossible to care about any of them).
One cannot see anything at all for the whole movie length, a bit of light then a lot of darkness for the rest of the time.Did the writer, the producers, the actors, anybody from the team think they had a story to tell?
In the end it amounts to bunch of people running and screaming most of the film through corridors of cave you can't see, while occasional light from the lamp flickers in a way to cause you epilepsy and hand held camera tries it's best to strengthen the feeling of nausea.It's one thing to try to be minimalistic and experimental developing the scariness factor but here we have no substance nor surprises waiting around the corner, you just know every time when someone is about to die.
After watching "The Cave" and seeing the previews for "The Descent", "The Cavern" seemed like a decent movie at first glance.
Like I said this movie just has an ending for my money it just did not work at all.