We start with a group of explorers thirty years ago in the 1970s, exploring some caves in, around, and under an ancient abbey in Romania. As they poke around inside the building, the floor gives way beneath a mosaic, and they fall into an underground cavern system. That is essentially the last we see of them.
Jump to the present day (well, 2005), and a group of very experienced divers and scientists are hired to restart the exploration and discover what happened to that group, decades prior. We then enter the ‘getting to know the characters’ phase, which focuses on the muscled rivalry between them - buddies pranking each other and ‘manly’ challenges - the usual tropes usually reserved for the likes of Arnie, Van Diesel and Sly. It is all very tedious. They also spend their time flirting with the two female members of the group who, for some reason (particularly the expert climber), are far from rippling with muscles!
Anyway, once we get into the action, they find the route into the cave system, which actually becomes the star of the show. The caves are very nicely imagined (or perhaps some are real locations) as we climb, dive, swim, and explore our way through with the team. Unfortunately, just as they begin to realise that the cave is home to a unique ecosystem with some wonderfully undiscovered parasites and creatures, a rockslide traps them all with no way back!
They have no choice but to head deeper into the network of caves, much of it underwater, whilst slowly realising that the creatures are aggressive, never-before-seen, and must be avoided at all costs to preserve their lives. As you would imagine, most of the supporting cast are picked off one by one, leaving the higher-salaried actors as the longest-lasting characters on set. The leader of the group, Jack, gets scratched by a creature fairly early on but continues regardless.
The task is to find a route out alive before the creatures can finish off the remaining members. There is an annoying amount of handheld camera work; while this is partly acceptable to depict the claustrophobic situation and the footage they are recording themselves, it is simply too much. It is a shame because the idea was a cracking one.
When we eventually see the (underused) creatures, they are imaginatively created and/or animated, but we don't see one clearly until about 75% of the way through the 97-minute runtime. It feels like a wasted opportunity, reinforced by the fact that for a so-called ‘horror’, the monsters aren't particularly scary or horrific.
To be fair, it is a reasonably enjoyable adventure yarn, but so much could have been done better to make it a more satisfying outing. There is a tease at the end for a sequel, but it seems the media and fan reaction was so negative that they didn't bother! It’s a shame they didn't try again and just make it better.
Spoiler Alert The scientists discover a prehistoric parasite (a fungus) that infects its hosts. It is revealed that the winged, amphibious monsters hunting them were actually the original 13th-century explorers (the 1970s team) who became trapped. The parasite mutated them into predators to survive the cave environment. Consequently, Jack begins to undergo a physical transformation; his senses sharpen, his pupils change, and he starts to "think" like the monsters. Just before he fully ‘turns’, he sacrifices himself to save the remaining group members.
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