PRESENTS

To say this is a well balanced movie would be an understatement. Let's first just call out that it's 2005 and we're talking about a "girl's night out" gone wrong movie. We're far from Oscar fodder, we're not breaking any molds, some general tropiness and derive should not only be expected, but embraced to really appreciate the successes of this flick.

I am so impressed with the effects and the story and the cinematography. Having the majority of the film play out in a pitch black cave opened up the opportunity for alot of bad 'night vision' pov's and little flash bangs of scary monster faces, but they didnt take the easy way out. They still give the audience a plethera of nice, clean, slow, terrifying images of beautiful, grotesque, expertly crafted creatures, wounds, and stunts. While the cave creatures may borrow a good amount of there design from movie monsters that have come before, the attention to detail and expert craftsmenship that went into actually building them makes them unique. The way the flesh on the body suit wrinkles and stretches naturally without looking like fabric is so impressive. Then there's the numerous stab wounds and gashes with active blood and organs. perfection. I still cant decide if they just used real carcasses or not, because they look incredible. The rare moments that they use a green screen are noticeable and a litte weak. Same goes for thier use of CGI, but it seems like they knew it wouldn't look great so they used those tools very sparingly and, because of that, it doesnt take away from the movie in the least. The story, again, is simple, but beautifully executed. The dialogue is passable and not at all a distraction. This is an A++ of a monster Movie and, in my book, can be considered the standard of perfection.