--Dr. Nicolai, The Cave
"Every cave organism we've discovered so far originated on the surface. Over time, they've adapted. Lost pigmentation and sight, developed a heightened sense of hearing and smell."
--Dr. Kathryn Jennings, The Cave
The Cave is almost 20 years old. A PG-13 horror film with its own mark on the cave subgenre, it has a fair amount of potential that it actually realizes. It is not quite at the level of The Decent, but The Descent is almost perfect in its execution, a masterpiece near the absolute apex of cave-based horror. The cast and the subterranean beasts are enough to keep the movie more than afloat. The way the creature is depicted does improve from the quickly-shifting camera cuts that the more intense moments rely on at first, so one of the more prominent weaknesses gets resolved closer to the end. Also noteworthy is how most of the special effects, even in 2023, do not have a blatantly outdated look and are right at home in the 2020s just as they were in the 2000s. The same would probably not be true of a CGI-heavy movie released in the last 10 years.
Production Values
The greatest two pillars of the film are the underwater cinematography and the acting, with the former at its best when longer, unbroken shots of the team underwater are onscreen, the cave bathed in blue artificial light. Additionally, there are some shots of the various animals like scorpions that inhabit the cave's serpentine passages, and these also stand among the best of the otherwise adequate but basic camerawork. Though it is not always directly, clearly shown until well over halfway into the runtime, the creature of The Cave is different enough from the humanoids of The Descent to make it unique. Moreover, the ensemble cast ensures that the characters are acted well. Lena Headey, Daniel Dae Kim, Cole Hauser, and the others do not receive a lot of character development, but they do not bring poor performances.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
30 years after some a group of people is trapped in a Romanian cave system under a church floor and suffer a cave-in, scientists hoping to map out and explore the same cave system find success in locating an underwater entrance. A kind of mole rat is quickly found below the surface, as well as hints of another, more aggressive animal--and a parasite that is present on both the mole rats and a salamander. A severed claw from the more aggressive organism resembles a part of the supposed demons seen on artwork from Knights Templar.
Intellectual Content
Again, like The Descent, The Cave lightly touches upon evolutionary adaptations and what it would be like to develop new traits in isolation from the surface world, just more as a way to set up a cinematic situation than as a way to really explore biology, evolution, isolation, and all the existential ramifications of these ideas. As a result, there is not much of a specific philosophical issue that is directly, intentionally examined, whether it is true or false. The better cave movie I keep mentioning also had subplots and more explicitly moral issues woven into the overall plot, which gave it additional layers that are simply absent in The Cave, and releasing around the same time was never likely to work in favor of the latter when it comes to reputation.
Conclusion
For what it is, The Cave is not a bad movie. Some of the cinematography during encounters with the creature could have been smoother, the characters could have been more developed (a smaller cast could have helped with this), and more of the backstory for the cave could have come to light. In spite of these issues, the execution is competent enough and the acting is strong enough to keep The Cave from ever becoming a terrible movie. It is also a chance to see Lena Headey before she reached the more mainstream status she has now. This could have been a distinctly better movie, but it also could have turned out much worse. For a better horror film about a cave network, see The Descent; for a better, more personal drama movie about a creature in water, see The Shallows. At the same time, there is nothing about The Cave that reaches the cave floor of movie quality no matter its general reception.
Content:
1. Violence: Exposed bone is directly on camera in one scene, and bloody wounds are shown in other scenes, yet many of the sequences where the scientists are attacked have too little light or are portrayed with such rapid camera cuts that nothing truly graphic is seen.
2. Profanity: Words like "shit, "damn," "bitch," and "bastard" are uttered every now and then.
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