The Cave (2005)

Bloodthirsty creatures await a pack of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network.

Director:

Bruce Hunt

Writers:

Michael Steinberg, Tegan West

Stars:

Piper Perabo, Morris Chestnut, Cole Hauser

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Cole Hauser	...	Jack McAllister
Eddie Cibrian	...	Tyler McAllister
Morris Chestnut	...	Top Buchanan
Lena Headey	...	Dr. Kathryn Jennings
Piper Perabo	...	Charlie
Rick Ravanello	...	Briggs
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Alex Kim
Kieran Darcy-Smith	...	Strode
Marcel Iures	...	Dr. Nicolai
Vlad Radescu	...	Dr. Bacovia
Simon Kunz	...	Mike - Caver #1
David Kennedy	...	Ian - Caver #2
Alin Panc	...	Razvan - Caver #3
Zoltan Butuc	...	Corvin - Caver #4
Brian Steele	...	Creature Performer

Storyline

Decades after a rock church in communist Romania's Carpathians caved when an expedition caused a landslide and buried everyone, Dr. Nicolai's scientific team exploring the associated Templar Knights monster fighting-legend discovers a deep, flooded cave system and hires the brothers Jack and Tyler's brilliant divers team to explore it. Another explosion traps them, after finding a mysterious parasite turning all species carnivore, and later an independently evolved predator species. Jack may be infected and turning, but Tyler sticks with him, so the group splits, hunted by the monsters, which also fly.

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Plot Keywords:

diver | parasite | flare | diving | cave | 

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Taglines:

Beneath heaven lies hell, beneath hell lies...

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense creature violence

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA Germany Romania

Language:

English Romanian

Release Date:

26 August 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Prime Evil

Filming Locations:

Zarnesti, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,147,294, 28 August 2005, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$15,007,991

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$18,288,466

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems,Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG,Lakeshore Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min 93 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Bruce Hunt's first and last movie as of 2016.

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Goofs

In the scene where Kathryn is falling down the waterfall, you can clearly see she is only wearing her dive booties. But as soon she enters the water again she has her fins on.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Kathryn: At first, I thought it couldn't survive outside of a cave environment. Now, I'm not sure. I think it wants to get out.

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Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: The Cavern (2012)

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Soundtracks

Nemo
Written by Tuomas Holopainen
Performed by Nightwish
Courtesy of Roadrunner Records, Nuclear Blast Records, Scene Nation Oy and Spinefarm Records

User Reviews

Would've been better WITHOUT the creatures!

I give it an average "5" because it's an average movie. Not really bad, not really good. Just not really ANYTHING. It just sat there and didn't really do anything. As a "man against the elements" movie, it was at least interesting. As a "creature feature," it was completely dull and unoriginal. The characters were one-dimensional - you wouldn't care about any of them.

Rather than letting us spend the time with these characters to learn how and why they are so close-knit, the script writer simply had one of the characters say, "We're like a family." - OK, if you say so . . . then why does no one in the group shed a single tear when people start dying? Characters move from death scene to death scene as if they are just losing casual acquaintances - but wait, she said "they are like a family." OH, I get it - because most family members can't stand each other - OK, now it makes sense! Anyway - if they had lost the monsters, gotten some better actors and a better script, and simply made a movie about cave divers lost underground having to band together to get out, this might have been a decent movie. As it is, the "escape the cave" element is never really richly developed, and instead the focus seems to be on "scaring" you, which it never does, or "wowing" you with action and effects, which it CERTAINLY never does.

In the end, a wasted opportunity, with the only redeeming feature being the nice sets and photography. Wait till it comes to cable, dudes!