The Cave

When somebody releases a horror movie in late-summer, it usually means bad, bad times at your local cinema. Oh, there are exceptions (the original Jeepers Creepers, released in August 2001, was fun), but summer’s end is usually a dumping ground. When a studio thinks it has a turd, August is that turd’s home. The Cave, starring Cole Hauser of Paparazzi (that’s a troubling sign right there), rips off such stalwarts as Alien, Predator and even the not-so-stalwart Pitch Black. It places a crew of your typical action-horror types in a very bad situation, and it’s easy to figure out who is going to die, and in what order. So it’s more than a little bit surprising that the movie is almost passable, with occasionally scary stuff. Oh, it’s not good by any means. It’s just not dreadful, which is almost a plus given the time of year. Director Bruce Hunt assembles a film that looks good, but a stronger cast and a bigger budget was probably needed to make this story about cave-dwelling monsters preying upon explorers more effective.