The Cave Review

After director Neil Marshall scared us silly with "The Descent", it's time to go back underground for another subterranean horror. But will this bigger budget US production feature the same thrills and spills.

The action centres on a group of crack US cave divers who've been hired to chart a massive system of caverns found deep beneath Romania's Carpathian Mountains. But when the team get a couple of miles in, an explosion blocks their escape route and only then do they discover that they are not alone in the dark.

Despite a reasonably promising start, you'll soon find yourself wanting to escape "The Cave". An ensemble of C-list Hollywood types (Cole Hauser, Morris Chestnut and Piper Perabo to name but three) mean that the acting isn't exactly of Oscar quality while the creatures that lurk in the depths are a bit of a let down when we finally see them - it's almost as though designer Patrick Tatopoulos found some blueprints he had left after working on "Pitch Black" and decided to rehash them. Also cliched lines abound - we're warned to 'Respect the cave' early on- as the explorers put themselves in some pretty dumb situations and you know it's only a matter of time before their numbers are whittled down.

There are some highlights - the underwater photography is stunning as is the sight of Lena Headey in a wetsuit - but all in all this is a poor relation to Marshall's intelligent and genuinely terrifying effort.