Sanctum (2010)

Have you seen Bruce hunts lovely little monstermovie, The Cave? My review of that underrated flick here. Sanctum is just like the Cave, only without monsters and even more hollywoodian sentiments. It's not a bad movie, on the contrary, it's just... a bit predictable and stupid.

Richard Roxburgh (who is a way better actor than this material deserves) plays one of those superpeople that only exist in movies, spending all of his time cavediving because "he cant handle a normal human life with mortgages etc". At the moment he is part of a team exploring an underwater cave in Papua New Guinea. The financer of the expedition, a young daredevil millionaire, arrives on the scene, bringing with him Roxburghs estranged son. The moment you find out who the characters relation, you realize that dad will die, but not before them finding each other again. That is not a spoiler, that is generic hollywood scripting at its laziest. It doesnt take long before a giant storm hits the place, starts flooding the cave and forcing the survivors to try to find another way out. Yes, people will sacrifice themselves. Yes, people will turn on each other. Yes, exactly when you know they are going too.

There isnt a single scene in this movie that feels fresh or in any way surprising, we follow the usual paths with any "twist" having been telegraphed half an hour earlier. It is based on the scriptwriters own experiences being trapped in an underwater cave but I hope to god that they didnt behave like this back then because this is just so stupid, so ordinary. All of this is a shame, Sanctum could have been a really nice ride with a bit more imagination. The director does what he can to milk out some suspense out of the script, the caveclimbing and divingscenes are well staged and the actors do a fine job, even better than the material deserves. You can do much worse when it comes to entertainment, just turn your brain off while watching.

Still, the movie is really inferior to The Cave. Sanctum could definately have used a couple of decent monsters to liven things up. At least a tentacle or two.