I remember this movie being incredibly tense when I saw it in theaters. It’s a strange thing, that watching a confined space on a large screen works remarkably well, possibly better than the same picture on a smaller screen.
I like this movie, but I always feel like there’s something a little off about it. It was easy to dismiss the creatures in the movie as being too silly, almost like a rip-off of Golum.
The first time you see this movie, it’s easy for the mid-movie twist to seem way too strange. It’s actually easier to accept the movie the second time through.
There’s a main failing to the movie, and it’s a shame to say it. I feel like I can’t identify many of the characters. A few of them stand out and are easy to recognize and keep in my mind. But then there are a few of them that I just can’t recognize. I have no idea what they’ve done during the movie. This makes it a bit harder to care about their predicament, and harder to feel invested in their interactions.
One thing that really stood out this time was the fantastic sound design of the movie. I mean… it’s damn good. I was listening on headphones, and I kept on having to take one ear off to check if I was hearing rain picking up. There are a lot more foreshadowing nuances that I hadn’t noticed, and I’m not even sure if I noticed them in the theater.
I’m also amazed to find out that they shot all of the cave material on a soundstage. I had been blown away by how spectacular that stuff looked in the theaters, and it still looks very real to my eyes. Amazing.
I recommend this movie to a lot of horror fans, but I think it’s gotten a mixed reception. Some people just don’t understand it at the end, some people are turned off by the slip between a very real horror story into a more fantasy horror. There’s something to be learned there, about the effects that audience expectation have on reception.
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