Rating :   55/100                                                                       97 Min       

The premise to this is a now familiar set up within scenario based horror films – a bunch of explorers and scientists explore a virgin cave system in Romania, and then it all goes to pot. In this instance the kicker is that stories of legend place titanic battles of knights versus satanic forces there – could there be any truth in this ancient legend as one by one the young adventurers fall foul of the labyrinthine tunnels?

The core problem with this particular outing is simply that it fails to create any real sense of tension, which combined with poor special effects and, for some of the cast, less than award winning acting (significantly less) results in a horror film which is conceptually fine but one that’s all too relaxing to watch. Lena Headey is the biggest name to feature here (with Piper Perabo and Morris Chestnut the two next most recognisable faces), and the screenplay makes sure to find reason to get her into a wetsuit and then unzip it to reveal her cleavage which is both a little groan worthy and at the same time I’m glad they did it (because otherwise her character would have died in that scene, obviously). Watching a film purely because you really fancy one of the main cast members doesn’t always pay dividends, but I still kind of enjoyed this on some level – although there are certainly better out there with a similar story – Neil Marshall’s ‘The Descent’ (05) and ‘Sanctum’ (11) for example. If you do see this, look out for the character (played by Perabo) who does the lion’s share of heroics but gets completely minced anyway, whilst everyone else just watches.