Some of the Greatest Mysteries Exist on Earth – But the Darkest Ones Are Within It.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi
Reviewed by Deep Red
Aka WIthIN
Before The Fourth Kind [2009] and Evidence [2013] Olatunde Osunsanmi directed The Cavern, originally titled WIthIN.
Eight cavers, Bailey (Sybil Darrow), Gannon (Mustafa Shakir), Domingo (Andres Hudson), Miranda (Ogy Durham), Ori (Andrew Caple-Shaw), Vlad (Kamen Gabriel), Slava (Neno Pervan) and Ambrose (Danny Jacobs) are trapped and hunted by a killer in a cave system in Kazakhstan (shot in the U.S.).
After meeting various characters it’s off caving. Don’t expect something as good as The Descent [2005] or you will be disappointed. This looks cheap and pretty dreadful and certainly isn’t up to the standard of The Fourth Kind or Evidence by the same director. I figured in advance that it probably wouldn’t be very good so I was prepared for the worst. It cost me the enormous sum of £2.
It’s pretty amateurish but it’s amateurish with some heart, I’m not surprised this guy went on to direct a couple of very decent films. By heart I mean for all its flaws it has energy, it just doesn’t work out. It looks awful, messy camerawork, very little in terms of atmosphere, weak-looking locations and fairly bland characters, but fair play to the actors who seem to be trying their best. There’s a little bit of OK-looking gore but bad camerawork ensures that most of the time you won’t have a clear view of what’s going on, not a pleasant confusion either, just disconnects you from the film too often.
The ending is something else. Really? Did you just end the film there?
Not good.
Also stars Cassandra Duarden as Rachel, True Tamplin as Young Petr and Johnnie Colter as Petr.