Review of Sanctum (2011) by Chad B — 04 Jun 2012

A very good watch considering this was a caving film with no gimmicks like flesh eating monsters or winged beasts. Instead it was simply an underground expedition to discover new caverns, which gave a large focus to the character relationships, and the strain placed upon them when a storm resulted in them being trapped deep at the bottom.

With an ever rising water level it in effect aimed at pitting more psychological fears (not to mention more realistic ones) to the audience such as darkness, drowning, and claustrophobia. There was a constant stream of action and we were only submitted to a brief intro to allow 90 minutes of jam packed entertainment.

I'm not the greatest fan of caving and underwater graphics simply because it's often difficult to make out what's going on, especially when the cast are all wearing identical wet suits. However, in fairness to this, it was relatively easy to follow and didn't disrupt my understanding too much.

The ending was quite emotional, dramatic and well executed, which I guess is to be expected from the guy that gave us Titanic', although I felt that there were some elements of predictability in the build up which hinted how the ending might eventually turn out.

A good movie, with virtually no horror to put off the squeamish amongst us!