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by Thomas M. Sipos,
managing editor [September 3, 2021]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com]
Four friends enter a cave to prove the existence of a monster. They
bicker, split up, get lost, find the monster and more, suffer
injuries, and finally struggle to escape the cave alive.
Yes, you've seen it before. It Came from
Below follows the usual "cave horror" tropes, most recently
utilized in
The Descent, The Cave, and
even the micro-budgeted Beneath: A Cave
Horror Story. Even so, It Came
from Below is a well done and throws in a few new twists.
The cast is professional. The production values are slick.
It Came from Below was filmed in
Britain, I assume during winter. The sky is always heavily overcast,
which helps create an atmosphere of brooding menace. This is a
sparsely populated film. We see very few people. I assume that's due
to the low budget, but this too adds to a feeling of isolation and
vulnerability.
We are met with some surprises in the cave. Some of the characters
quickly lose their minds and hallucinate. I wondered if maybe there
was no monster, just gas or something that caused hallucinations. But
no, that seems not to be the case. Actually, I'm still not sure what
went on in that cave.
The leader of this expedition, Jessie (Megan Purvis), is a
Final Girl. The classic horror trope of the strong, chaste woman
who survives. Yet at times she's a silly character and poorly written.
Jessie escapes from the cave long before the film's end. She's found
by local forest rangers, who advise Jessie to wait for the police,
ambulance, and local cave rescuers to find her friends.
Smart advice. But what does Jessie do? She threatens the forest
rangers with a screwdriver and broken bottle, lest they stop her from
returning to the cave. Jessie insists that she must return now,
immediately, to rescue her friends.
Why now? Why not wait for professional rescuers to arrive? Jessie
barely escaped alive because she couldn't handle the threats in
the cave. Now she wants to go back? And without any additional
help, or weapons, or plan of action?
So Jessie returns to the cave. Despite only running 80 minutes,
It Came from Below manages to
cover the same terrain as both
The Descent and
The Descent: Part Two. The
Final Girl escapes the cave -- then returns to the
cave to rescue her friends. Two films for the price of one!
The two forest rangers reluctantly follow Jessie. Too bad for them. We
know they're only coming along to provide fresh meat for the body
count.
It Came from Below is a silly, low
budget film, with some confusing elements. Some of the pieces still
don't make sense to me. Critics have observed that Jessie and her
friends enter the cave with no equipment other than lamps and cell
phones. Despite the lack of a phone signal in the cave, they're intent
on recording the monster. They also bring no weapons should they find
said monster.
I said this was a silly group. But silly young folk are another horror
staple, so I can overlook that. I assumed they planned a quick in &
out. Enter the cave, get your monster selfie, then exit. (A really
long selfie stick would have proved handy.)
Despite its silly and confusing aspects (blame Dan Allen and Sam
Ashurst's script), It Came from Below
is nicely shot, professionally acted,
with decent gore. David Foxley did a very nice job on his monster
design. (See the above poster art.) His creature is properly gruesome, but also distinctive enough not to be mistaken for other
movie monsters.
While not a masterpiece, It Came from
Below should be pleasantly diverting for cave horror fans.
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