"I'm an English teacher, not fucking Tomb Raider."
- Beth O'Brien
Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, MyAnna Buring, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone, Oliver Milburn (the only man in the cast!), Molly Kayll
Directed By: Neil Marshall
Trailer: "Claustrophobia. Disorientation. Hallucination. Fear."
Premise: A year after losing her husband and daughter in a car accident, Sarah's friends take her spleunking...unfortunately, there comes a cave-in, and the ladies soon discover that they've got bigger problems than claustrophobia.
My familiarity with this movie: None. Did a Google search for "best horror movies", and this one came up as one I haven't seen.
Notes, opinions, general thoughts (beware of spoilers):
- Tobin Bell (of "Saw" fame) has stated this is one of his favorite horror movies.
- The film begins with white-water rafting...then Sarah's husband and daughter are accidentally killed in a sudden, graphic, shocking manner. Makes one think that it's gonna be a very fast-paced film. However...
- After the scene in the hospital, the movie slows down considerably. It's not until nearly an hour in that any of the main characters die. This is not a complaint.
- The slow burn allows us to get to know the characters, and sets the seeds for their eventual distrust of each other.
- The recurring shot of Jessica's birthday party really gets to me.
- Despite being set in the Appalachian Mountains, the movie was shot in England and Scotland.
- The main cast was kept seperated from the actors playing the crawlers, in order to making their animosity and surprise feel more real. It worked too well, as the women ran off the set upon seeing the first crawler in makeup.
- Juno throwing her pick at a crawler and then snapping its neck: WOW. That's badass.
- Not gonna lie: that part where they had to push the bone back into Holly's leg...I couldn't watch. I had to look away. Eeugh.
- I think the coolest shot in the film from an artistic perspective is the one in the ending when Sarah climbs the pile of bones towards the exit. It's beautifully shot.
- The film had two endings. The US version ends with the shot of Sarah seeing a hallucination of Juno's ghost after her escape from the cave. The original UK version follows that up with Sarah waking up, showing that her escape was just a dream, and that she's now hallucinating her daughter's birthday party, and she's happy...despite the reality of the crawlers heading towards her as she's still hopelessly lost in the cave.
- There's also some ambiguity over whether the crawlers are real, or if Sarah's lost her grip on reality, and THINKS her friends are being killed by monsters, when it's actually just her.
The Tally of Terror:
- 15 dead bodies (eight human, nine crawlers.)
- 1 cave system
- 6 protagonists
- CUTIE ALERT: Sarah
- CUTIE ALERT: Juno
- CUTIE ALERT: Hell, they're all cute in their own way
- 1 video game reference (Tomb Raider)
- 1 Sesame Street reference
- 1 cave-in
- 1 compound fracture
- 3 eyes gouged out
- 1 accidental murder
- several throats slashed
- 1 dirty joke about lemons
- 2 endings (UK and USA versions)
Best scare: The first time we see a crawler.
The Good:
- Incredibly well-directed and shot. Especially the realistic handling of the darkness.
- There's an incredibly unsettling and realistic sense of dread and claustrophobia throughout the whole thing...and that's before the monsters show up.
- Incredibly tense. The jump scares are definitely more effective when you KNOW something's coming.
- The characters are all interesting, likable and complex. Juno especially: she's given reasons for the audience to love her...but also hate her. And there doesn't seem to be a "right" answer.
- I'm a big fan of ambigious endings and twists that turn the whole movie around. Naturally, I dug the whole thing about Sarah's own personal descent.
- Very slow-paced for most of the film. I understand why, and I think it's great for it. But not everyone will be into that.
- Reliant on jump scares. I'm not a fan of 'em, myself...though seeing as how the crawlers are ambush hunters who thrive in darkness, it really makes sense.
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