The Cave

Scientists discover a network of caves somewhere in Romania, so they summon Jack the cave explorer (Cole Hauser) to check things out. Jack’s up to the challenge, yet he’s unaware of the monster coven awaiting him and his team. Director Bruce Hunt knows how to make a decent-looking movie, and this film’s sets and locations are often impressive. But he should’ve dedicated more of his budget to better stars and superior writing, because Hauser is a dull leading man, and the dialogue, while not awful, fails to engage. The monsters, winged demons with H.R. Giger-like choppers, are scary enough, but it appears that budget constraints kept their appearances to a minimum. The movie also suffers from occasionally chaotic editing that makes the action hard to follow. These flaws are a bit of a shame because this could’ve been decent B-movie fun. It also stars Morris Chestnut, Piper Perabo and the extremely uncharismatic Lena Headey, who also mucked up Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm. It’s another so-called horror movie softened to PG-13, and that’s a trend that needs to stop.