User Reviews

Somehow from an evening of drifting about various articles and stories online, I managed to come across Ted's caving site. I was almost immediately enthralled by it, and loved how it managed to be creepy without overtly alluding to any supernatural or horror fantasy elements until seemingly more than half-way in. Even leading up to then, it was not at all clear if this was going to be a case of a fictional story or a strange occurrence with a likely mundane explanation.

The epilogue trail-off was rather overly dramatic to me, and sort of sealed the story off to me as being genuinely fictitious. I did some research and learned to my surprise the "Ted" is real, and he really did explore that cave, although the horror elements were added just for a fun story.

somehow then this led to this film based on the story. I had no expectations right away, given less its low budget than its incredibly lame title and its plot synopsis with needless extraneous story elements like making the Ted and Brad characters brothers with some overly dramatic backstory and a dead father bringing them together to the cave and a needless mentally disabled brother who inexplicably manages to get down into the cave despite having no clear knowledge of climbing or caving or even having any equipment on him.

the film is shot, and in some cases acted, in a very amateurish way that is rather off-putting, and is only saved by the fact that it delves straight into the cave discovery within the first few minutes.

from there, despite having a needless backstory for the two protagonists, it sticks almost exactly to the original web story, complete with recreations of the web story's pictures.

despite the amateurish style and acting, the film is shockingly not that bad, and despite blowing its proverbial load early with some teasing shock moments, the final sequence, taking place presumably after the last entry of the web story, features some amazing-looking creatures largely hidden away and showing up infrequently, looking great for a low budget film. The one brief shot the film indulges us with its face, it looks amazing.

overall this is a film that doesn't need to exist, and tried to not come off as a straight-forward direct adaptation of the source material, to its own detriment. the source material is strong on its own, and this film did the best it could.

I wanted to give this movie a fair try because I really liked the creepypasta it is based off of. I truly enjoyed the creepypasta, but this movie is pure garbage. The acting was very amateur, and the plot did not follow the original story. The first question I had was, if the hole was only a few inches when the brothers found it, how did their father get killed by those mud monsters in the first place? Second, how did their uncle fit through that crawl space as a more pudgy man, when the little brother, who was very thin, could barely get through? There were so many cringey parts of this movie that I cannot believe I even finished watching it. I would give zero stars if I could. You are better off just sticking with the creepypasta version of this story.

That's pretty much all I can say about "Living Dark". The film starts out rather nicely with two brothers finding the entrance to a cave and a hidden section of the cave deeper inside. Their attempts to reach that section build the framework for the first part of the movie, that is, in my opinion, the strongest. Here the characters are established that are actually quite sympathetic in a way, even though some scenes might be a bit over the top.

I still was in a positive state of mind when I learned that something sinister seemed to hide in this untouched part of the cave. What I hoped for was some kind of mystery, slowly revealed by the freshly established characters. Unfortunately, what happens is rather an army of mud and dirt soldiers, living exclusively in the dark and randomly killing people.

This is where the producers lost me. To be fair I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of para-natural Horror. But even if I were one cannot but see that the idea of something evil hiding in the dark and killing people is not exactly brand new. For me this story is told. And the threehundredandsixteenth shot of people running from evil won't add much substance to it.

First I would like to say, the director got it right several times. There were some scares and although they were jump scares which leave you feeling empty afterwards, the lead up to that jump scare was good, not too sudden, not too expected.

The problem comes in the plot.

1) Their father's tomb is in the middle of nowhere. That's cool. They encountered an old mine shaft while visited their father's tomb, that's cool too. What's not cool, is when they decided to open a hole that they themselves acknowledged to be 'someone trying very hard to keep it sealed'. There's even a chair looking at that hole, suggesting that someone's been watching the hole before. That's stupidity number 1.

2) The big brother was so adamant about entering the hole that they opened up, supposedly to find out why their father died. That's cool too, emotion and passion is good. What's not good is for them to still want to go in despite hearing some monstrous sound from the other side. Stupidity number 2.

3) So they roped in their friend to explore with them too. That's cool too. Except this guy came out completely spooked and couldn't say a word. The big brother even went to his home, tried to ask what he saw, but instead of calling it quits, the big brother went back in. Why? Just why? You want to see the horror yourself? You know there's gonna be horror, so why were you in there and then freak out when you confront such horror? Stupidity number 3, plus several stupidities in between bundled together.

4) So their brother went in, came back out completely spooked, while dragging behind him some of these creatures, so much so that they tried to follow them out of the hole in the ground. Okay, this is not a problem. The problem is, after all this, Charlie who felt ignored, decided to meet them on his birthday at Floyd's Tomb. Okay, I know Charlie's not right in the head, but under what mental condition would someone decide, "Hey, let's celebrate my birthday at the place your father died horribly!" Stupidity number 4.

5) So the brothers,seeing the message immediately chased after Charlie. Awesome, you can feel the tension and the desperation here. Again, awesome. What's not awesome is in the detail. Like how is it that the lean younger brother got stuck entering that hole when the fatter and definitely less athletic Charlie got through fine? I'm sure someone would argue that Charlie was dragged there by the shadow creatures, but no, his jacket was placed right by the hole, which means he took it off and entered the hole himself. Stupidity number 5.

I don't know if there's a stupidity number 6, but I stopped watching at this point. I feel I've done fairly well watching for almost 1 and a half hours. I don't normally give anything a negative review, but someone should be shot over this.

I realise making an adaption of anything isn't an easy task, but they really missed the entire point of the original story.

The original story was a very slow burn. It took its sweet time setting everything up and every little bit of progress in it was very exciting. This movie throws that out of the window. Less than 30 minutes in and Ted is almost through the hole already.

The original story is a story about a random cave that our characters stumble upon and explore, as cavers. It's not a very character driven story at all. In fact, the characters could be nameless and the story wouldn't change. This movie tries to make it more character driven, with added drama and a family plot about their dad and uncle having explored the cave before them.

The original story is very subtle. It's somewhat near a road so when they first hear noises, they assume it's from the road. B's dog, Whip, comes with them down into the cave, and loves it down there, until they get closer to the hole. This movie puts a bunch of tools and chairs and weird stuff in the cave already, because what is subtlety? Random jumpscares from nightmares that Ted, in the original story, didn't get until after he went all the way in. And then showing the monster. Taking all the subtlety of the story, and throwing it right into the bin.

The point is that they horribly misused all the original material they had, and instead of trying to make either a faithful adaption of a beloved internet story, or a unique take on it, they made one of the most bland and generic cliche horror movies ever.

2/10 because of how little the original story mattered to the creators, but even disregarding that, it's a generic, boring 4/10 horror movie, at best.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THE MID OF THE REVIEW (you've been warned)

I found this movie accidentally. Usually movies based on Creepypastas don't call my attention, however, this one did and I certainly I don't know why.

First of all, I don't like 'claustrophobic' movies, so I always skipped them, but Living Dark surprised me and got me hooked.

The first act is awsome, and the second follows the construction: two estranged brothers reunite for their fathers burial, and accidentally find a virgin cave. So they bond again by joining together for caving on it.

It was awesome, how they built the tension and desperation on some scenes. Director have done a good job. Darkness and spooky sounds have good part on keeping me very hooked and scared at the same time.

I did love the leading actor and how he played 'Ted', and the actor playing 'Brad' made a good follow up, they had brotherly chemistry.

The third act, however, lost all the build up, and lost some tension.

The end kind of dissapointed me.

SPOILERS HERE: I didn't like the explanation of what was living on the cave, was kind of a bad copy of "The Descent" and wasn't creep at all. It had no reason to be, I mean; seriously? An army of deformed beings just killing randomly in the cave and out the cave when is convenient? No, just no. All what was constructed at the two first part of the movie was losted on it.

Altghough, Ted sacrifice for his brother was a high point. Brad did make a good choice by shutting down the place.

SPOILERS OUT.

The worst: it need more expanded explanation for the plot twist at the end, and this twist was not good.

The best: acting was pretty good! good story, very creepy atmosphere, and tension had me all the way desperated to the next scene.

Well... I recommend this one, it is actually very good.

8/10

Watch at your own risk ... We are all critics, but must see to give a critic.

I was only vaguely familiar with the "creepypasta" this was from, and didnt even realize thats why I was familiar with this story until I saw someone else comment on that.

If you are easily scared, I imagine this movie will do the trick.

However, if you want something similar to the Descent, you will be disappointed.

The movie starts out seemingly well. There is a bit of brotherly tension and a father who had passed away bringing them together again. They discover a cave system that seems previously undiscovered and decide to try to explore the cave.

Thats when the story, which early on has good pacing and some interesting things going on goes off the rails. A couple other characters are introduced for not many reasons and the nice pacing that was happening falls apart into a slog.

There are jump scares, possible hallucinations, and a bunch of random things that seem meaningless.

As it is based off of a creepypasta (internet urban legend basically), there are maybe details they had to shoehorn in, but its been so long since I read the "story" that I dont recall. Regardless, how its handled in the movie is just awful.

I'd skip this one and go re-watch the descent with the UK ending again.

The movie started really great, with two brothers uncovering mysterious unexplored cave with something sinister lurking in the deeps. For a good part of the movie it was not clear what it is or if its even real or only the imagination of the protagonists. Unfortunately at the end story reveals that the dark mystery is only a ghoulish human like creatures living in the forgotten cave. There is always a problem with movies like this - show too little or too much. In this case I personally would prefer if story left more to the imagination. The acting and camera work was decent but the entire movie is quite forgettable. As some said - wasted potential.

This movie is truly a stain on this story's name. Unlike what the title says, It is NOT The story of Ted the Caver. I read the story shortly before i watched this movie and i will be describing the ways that i think this movie made mistakes. This movie may have been accurate if the title was "Living Dark: Inspired by Ted the Caver" because it is most certainly not the story.

One of the first issues that i have with this movie is that it doesn't explicitly say that it is inspired by Ted the Caver. It poses itself as the movie retelling the story of Ted the Caver visually. B is now Ted's brother and Joe is a total nutjob.

Starting off on the other issues i have with this movie, the cave. The cave itself has a completely different make-up than in the story. The way the cave is set up in the movie is very lit up and lived in, with lights and random decorations. In the story, its a cave. The cave around the hole was too big compared to what the story was describing.

The next problem that i have with this movie is the way that the characters interact with each other and their relationships. Ted and "Brad" who is supposed to be "B" is now Ted's brother. While that is not an issue in itself, B has a totally different attitude. Ted has a totally different personality as well, being more of a baby in all honesty. Neither of them have any experience in caving and, while watching the movie, it made it incredibly hard to enjoy. "Brad" is always trying to convince Ted that it's a bad idea and to just give it up. He is the complete opposite of how B is in the story. Don't even get me started on Joe. Joe is a total weirdo and a waste of a good character. I wish they did run him over to save me the suffering of having to see him on screen ever again.

Another problem is the way they made the whole sequence incredibly short and didn't even include the loud scream from the hole while B was drilling. Actors were not accurate to how they were depicted in the story. The line "I heard a rock slide" isn't specific or concise enough. A better phrase would be "I heard a rock sliding."

Some good things they did: Got the pictures accurate, Got the visuals of the hole accurate, Got the general timeline accurate.

I am too lazy to waste my time on this anymore, frankly its quite boring even just recalling the movie and trying to find anything to even write about. All in all, this movie is not a good watch and i wouldn't recommend it.

I saw a few positive reviews on IMDB so I watched the movie.

I'm not familiar with Ted the Caver. The film was just a film for me.

I'm giving 1 star for the effort and determination it would take to produce a movie. I'm giving another star because I jumped during a hallucination sequence ... and I'm very impressed with that.

I think editing and directing contribute just as much to acting talent as the actual talent. If I watched these actors in a well-financed film/tv show with adequate directing, a better script, and effective editing, they'd probably appear to be better actors. There were several scenes or lines where the "acting" was too obvious. Other times, they were believable.

I'm not sure how Uncle Charlie managed to fit through the hole or why he went down the shaft - the viewer doesn't get to see this. If I had to use my imagination, I would guess some other entrance to the cave besides the too-small-for-Charlie-to-fit-through hole, and that he was lured or dragged by the creatures living in the cave.

I enjoyed the gas station character. He gave the movie more realism and an element of humour. The brothers were serious and mawkish too often.

Irrational decision-making is usually a facet of storytelling that I do not enjoy. I could tolerate the brothers initial intrigue and sense of adventure, but when you're screaming and terrified, you'd be contacting authorities rather than returning to a cave hole time and time again, alone and ill-equipped.

The fatalities in the film were also completely avoidable. In the final scene - deep in the black hole - there was so much motion and movement I wasn't sure what was happening. I figured that sensitivity to light was keeping them at bay, but a single torch pointed in one direction wouldn't scare off the number of creatures surrounding them for long. Sure, scream for some drama, but the characters behaviour bordered on silly hysteria and madness rather than adrenaline and natural survival instinct. At one point the brothers stop and sit to talk about how they really love each other for an excessive amount of time, without being attacked, then they stand up and the creatures are right there ... as if they were giving them 'moment'.

I'd like to see the cast in something else to see if more production value and better editing improves their talent, and as more the writer, producer and director ... everyone starts somewhere.

First off this movies plot does not follow the original story at all, in the original story the two friends are avid cavers that want to explore the virgin passage in the cave, no dead relative like in the movie, second the cave was not closed off in the story and was easily accessible, third there was no tools or chair present down there before ted and be go down there, 4th how does a gas generator start without making any noise? i don't know either but apparently these guys have stumbled upon the first completely quiet gas generator as when they turn the lights on it makes zero noise in the first few minutes of the movie, 5th who just throws a rope around a tree and just freeclimbs down into some unknown cave with no equipment? again not accurate to the original story as they were super prepared with lots of equipment in the original story, 6th the movie never explained why they decided to repel into this random hole in the ground and why they even wanted to go into the passage in the first place, neither of them seemingly knew anything about caves so how do they have any idea about passages or anything like that? to even understand why they are down there you have to read the original story or it makes no sense, why don't they explain what is essentially the main focus of the movie better? 7th, this movie is obviously very low budget but they make it so blatantly obvious, horrible camera angles, weird jump cuts and awful costumes to name a few issues, a toddler with windows movie maker could edit better then whoever edited this movie. 8th some parts of this movie are super accurate especially the parts where they actually climb through the passage but the blatant disregard for accuracy to the original story makes this unwatchable. 9th the horror aspect of this movie is just as badly done as the rest, the demon from the dark looks like a $5 costume they found in a clearance bin at walmart, the effects are badly done and super cheesy, there are so many jump cuts during the horror scenes that you have no idea what's going on and end up being way more confused then scared. and 10th if you've never watched this movie or read the original creepypasta you might have a different opinion but if you have read the creepypasta your gonna want to pass on this movie, it's the equivalent of a high school drama project

It started out decent until the Brothers swore they would NEVER GO BACK TO THE HOLE IN CAVE WALL...but the next day,went right back.Then the fun starts..The older Brother HEARS some noise and begins to scream like a little girl..making faces like a child..They escape the hole and are apparently followed out by the mystery monster who has ahold of their rope..The younger Brother takes almost 40 secs. To cut a fairly small rope and at that point I.was laughing and DISGUSTED AT THE SAME TIME...PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS CHILDREN'S DEBACLE!!! HAHAHA

Actually the movie wasn't that bad at the beginning, until..... the 3rd character showed up and then the ridiculous choices started happening one after another with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And the 2nd half of the movie basically another screamfest and senseless dialogue that added nothing to the story. I mean who really cares about birthdays and stuff like that when you are thinking about stuffing your body through an underground passage where you can barely breathe to rescue your buddy who doubtfully could have ever fit thru that passage anyway?? Just another disappointment. You want a good scary cave movie? Watch The Descent.