The Cave Review Country : USA Year: 2005 Genre: Horror/Creature Feature Format: Cinema Running Time: Sony Distributor: 97 minutes A group of divers become trapped in a complex underwater cave network and face a terrifying menace..... Credits Directed by Bruce Hunt. Written by Michael Steinberg and Tegan West. Starring Cole Hauser, Morris Chestnut, Eddie Cibrian, Lena Headey and Piper Perabo. Dare to face your fears? Beware! They lurk in The Cave. No, seriously. Most people experience some fear of the tight spaces, and the dark, even if it emerges as a subtle discomfort over facing the unknown. Often, this discomfort with the unseen and the unknown magnifies benign reality into a consuming terror. Many people still carry memories of their childhood frights. Some cannot shake their fears of the dark even in adulthood. The Cave uses the human proclivity towards fearing claustrophobia and darkness to create a dazzling and consuming blend of action, and horror. The plot seems conventional enough. Bloodthirsty creatures await a pack of divers who become trapped in the worlds largest, undiscovered underwater cave network. One by one, the members of the team are stalked and ultimately consumed by the parasitic creatures. For the characters of The Cave, survival is constantly threatened and fear rapidly escalates. Headed up by leader of the gang Jack (Cole Hauser), his brother Tyler (Eddie Cibrian), long time buddy Buchanan (Morris Chestnut), and the every so cute Charlie. (Piper Perabo) The film has the usual set up, complete with false scares, horrifying albino gnomes, and a scene involving scorpions that will make your spine tingle… *then* the real terror kicks in. The rapturous creatures begin to prey and all of the prior fears converge into a constant scare fest. The visual wizardry is used to the maximum through tricky balance of what we see and what remains hidden. Both, the seen and the unseen are equally scary. Also, I was afraid that I would hate this movie because it would do the usual overuse of bad CGI. Well, not this time. The mix between live action and CG is used well, and we don’t see the creatures to much--a trick that worked very well in Alien. First time director Bruce Hunt (2nd and 3rd AD on the Matrix trilogy) seems so familiar with the dynamics of fear that his rhythm and shot composition are well orchestrated to reveal only as much as is needed to deepen the terror. I can usually pick first time directors apart, but I was pleasantly surprised for a change and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his work in the future. The worst situations bring out the worst or the best in people, and the battle against the bat like beasts of the cave quickly becomes the battle against the internal enemies emerging from dark crevices of the human mind and heart, the territory that tends to erupt with deadly surprises. None of them can be taken for granted, neither in their heroism nor in their weakness. Jack (Cole Hauser) walks the tightrope of his character with a delicate blend of intensity and softness while the lovely Charlie (Piper Perabo) struggles with her urge to sacrifice her own life in the films best sequence that had the audience cheering. Seriously. Nothing is as it seems in The Cave. As scary and unbeatable as the creature seems, they can ultimately be outsmarted for they are just blood thirsty beasts, but the people who become victims die because of their plain stupidity, selfishness, and yes, even heroism. The Cave mesmerizes with its terror while teasing our insatiable appetites for suspense. Even those who shun the gripping effect of horror films might find The Cave a challenge worth taking on. The film opens nationwide on Friday, August 26th. OFFICIAL SITE Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com