The Devil Below is a horror-thriller film directed by Bradley Parker. It stars Will Patton, Adan Canto, Alicia Sanz, Chinaza Uche, and others and was released on 5th March 2021 on Video On Demand.
Many years ago, a father (Will Patton) and his son were brutally attacked by a mysterious beast where the son dies. Now cut to the present time, four geology professors of Cambridge University are going to Shookum Hills, known for a coal mine, for a geological survey tests of a new kind of coal Anthracite. Arianne (Alicia Sanz) has the responsibility to make sure of those four men's safety. Reaching there they get to see many holes on the ground but are covered with electric grills. Why is that so? Why the mine has been closed? Why no one lives there? Are they safe? These questions will keep popping and will be clear gradually.
Eric Scherbarth and Stefan Jaworski have written the story. They have amazingly created a terrifying world with a creepy atmosphere about a town with no civilization and a coal mine closed many years ago. There is a group of people that are making sure that no one crosses that barrier. The mine holes are covered by grills. I mean, this is a solid foundation for any monster movie. Even if you find it cliched, which you'll find if you have watched The Descent, you'll want stick to it. With several lines like 'well to hell' or with the reference like The Borehole of Siberia, which after digging up to 8 miles, they recorded a growing noise, creates a horror atmosphere perfectly.
This builds up curiosity, as you'll want to know what's underneath the mines? Who attacked the boy in the first scene? Are the creatures big or small? And then everything starts to fall apart from the scene when they found the real doorway to the coal mine and one of them is abruptly attacked. The interest starts to fade when you are not being delivered any thrilling or horrific moments after that. The characters are dying willfully by calling the creatures, and the climax, especially, where it becomes so hard to see what's really happening? The excessive redness and the blurry effect, not wanting to show the creatures with clarity, messes everything up.
Alicia Sanz is basically the Sarah Carter from The Descent. As Arianne, Alicia Sanz gave a decent performance. She missed the spark that was required while delivering her lines. Like when one man asks her "what happened to your group?", she replies "I'm the only one left". She was so bland and unconvincing. Will Patton as Schuttmann was impressive and was earnest. Adan Canto as Darren suffers from the ill-treatment of his character. Others were quite average.
The cinematography by Morgan Susser is good. But the climax was tough for me to see what's really happening. The production design by Ashley Fenton and Megan Fenton is very appropriate and the music by Nima Fakhrara is definitely thrilling and gripping. The editing by David Kashevaroff is crisp.
Overall, The Devil Below is not the monster movie we wanted. The film picks up pretty well but starts to dry out soon. With cliched dialogues and lacks of chills and thrills and unimpressive performance, makes this one falls under the "skip it" category. Not even the monsters will able to save this one. Watch The Descent 1 & 2, The Cave, Sanctum or The Shallows or Crawl if you're in the mood of watching monster movies.
Rating:- 2/5
Now available via Video On Demand.
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