THE CAVE

Horror movies used to be primarily monster movies, but that has changed in today’s world where the scariest things have become the people around us. If you don’t think that’s true, just remember the Muslim terrorists here and in England who want to murder all those who oppose them, or the pedophiles who snatch and murder little children on our streets while too many politicians, prosecutors and judges do next to nothing about it. I call this theme in horror movies “The Beast Within.”

THE CAVE is a monster movie that combines the old-fashioned monster movie with the idea that the people around us are the beasts we really have to watch and destroy.

The movie opens 30 years ago when a group of explorers start to explore a hidden cave beneath a 13th Century church in Communist Romania. Paintings in the church describe an event in the Middle Ages when a group of demons supposedly killed an army of knights near the church. A tremendous rock slide destroys the church and traps the explorers in the cave rooms and caves under the church, where something wicked this way comes.

Cut to present day.

A cutting edge group of cave explorers travels to the church ruins to explore the huge cave system found there again. The explorers travel one mile down and three miles into the caves. Some kind of monster attacks the team leader and one explorer, causing an underwater rock slide that traps the whole team, including a female scientist and a female cave expert. Jack, the leader of the team, orders the team deeper into the cave system to find a way out. More monsters await them, of course, but Jack has been infected by a new form of parasite associated with the demonic winged monsters (which can also swim). And, it appears that the parasite is causing Jack to actually change slowly into one of the monsters.

THE CAVE expertly takes the traditional monster movie and combines it with the modern horror movie, where the scariest beast in the world may actually be man himself. The photography is great, but some of the editing and story transitions seem choppy. Also, a few lines of dialogue seem hokey or annoying. THE CAVE contains lots of scary creature violence and much strong foul language (including one “f” word), so MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

If the movie’s Christian references were strengthened, and the foul language lessened, we might rate this movie higher. For example, the movie’s light moral worldview, especially in the character arc of the team leader, contains a possible metaphorical Christian premise suggesting that self-sacrifice can overcome mankind’s sinful, demonic nature.

This is the message of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross for our sins. The filmmakers could have stressed this Christian premise much more strongly, or even explicitly, but they apparently chose not to, or they didn’t fully understand all the redemptive possibilities in their own story.

Finally, the ending of THE CAVE is partially satisfying, in that some of the exploring team members survive. The ending, however, also sets moviegoers up for some sequels, so the demonic monsters can take the battle against humanity to new levels of mayhem in the future, depending on how financially successful the first movie is.

Of course, lack of financial success has never stopped some filmmakers and studio executives in Hollywood. For an example, consider (if you must) the case of overrated director Martin Scorsese, who usually keeps making movies that most moviegoers don’t really want to see.