Unlikely plot turns draw laughs and guffaws they’re compounded with the sheer stupidity of the characters, each pushed to their stereotypical extreme, with no logic involved.īut yes, the film does look good – too good, maybe, as the crisp, sanitized style betrays the gritty nature of the cave system. “The only way out is down.”įrom this point, you’ll know exactly what happens each actor is not portraying a character, but rather a well-worn stereotype, the kind that was well-worn back in the days of The Poseidon Adventure and Airport ’77.īeyond that, there’s little thought given to any of the performances – each is unusually bland.
Frank, Josh, Carl, Victoria, and Crazy George (Dan Wyllie), who hasn’t dived in years, are trapped. The cave is flooded, and a boulder conveniently washes against the only exit. So one group is on their way out of the cave when suddenly, the horror, it starts to rain. I’m getting ahead of myself the rest of the characters are perfectly fine… unless it rains. Still to come: two more ridiculous “mercy drownings,” in which characters are put out of their misery by being forced underwater in some of the most unpleasant deaths imaginable. Her hose suddenly snaps, and she panics as Frank tries to share his face mask with her, so he wrestles it back and watches her drown in front of him. About to join him and his team are brash son Josh (Rhys Wakefield), gung-ho billionaire Carl (Ioan Gruffudd), and Carl’s inexperienced girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson).īefore they arrive, we’re treated to our first death scene: diver Judes (Allison Cratchley), who wasn’t feeling very well, goes out on a dive with Frank, minus a backup tank.
In a massive, unexplored cave system in Papua New Guinea, cave explorer and expert diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) is leading a partially-underwater cave exploration.
That name alone garnered the film a theatrical release, though his involvement was likely limited to 3D and underwater cinematography still, he’s typically been more careful about his projects, even as producer. It’s not quite that bad – and it is sufficiently entertaining in a campy, just-go-with-it way – but I was nevertheless shocked to see James Cameron’s name attached to the film as executive producer. All that separates this from a Z-grade SyFy original is a CGI Sharktopus. Sanctum looks great in crisp, clean James Cameron-approved 3D, but that’s about the best that can be said for it while more-than-competently put together on the technical side, what we see in front of the camera is strictly amateur hour, with poor portrayals of underwritten characters filling out a by-the-numbers disaster movie plot.
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