While the film balances out a decent dose of realism with ultimate savagery and claustrophobic jumpscares, the director is unable to fully commit to the found-footage format, taking away some of its shine. This is essentially The Descent, minus the flesh-hungry creatures, albeit with a more spontaneous (yet dumb) premise and an emotionally weaker set of key characters. A couple of them, in particular, are incredibly annoying and stupid. But I guess that's how groups in general tend to be.
Cave horror is a reasonably engaging subgenre when tackled correctly, and in that regard, director Alfredo Montero is easily able to bring those anxiety levels up, especially when the characters keep crawling their way through tiny spaces. There are a whole bunch of "getting lost" clichés, but the proceedings kept me interested. Since the whole saga unravels quickly, I wasn't able to fully buy into the group's decision to commit cannibalism to stay alive. In a longer and more emotionally drawn-out film, that plot development would've been the most disturbing. But here, the jumpscares and shaky visuals continue overriding it until the very end.
Cave horror is a reasonably engaging subgenre when tackled correctly, and in that regard, director Alfredo Montero is easily able to bring those anxiety levels up, especially when the characters keep crawling their way through tiny spaces. There are a whole bunch of "getting lost" clichés, but the proceedings kept me interested. Since the whole saga unravels quickly, I wasn't able to fully buy into the group's decision to commit cannibalism to stay alive. In a longer and more emotionally drawn-out film, that plot development would've been the most disturbing. But here, the jumpscares and shaky visuals continue overriding it until the very end.