CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Prof-Hieronymos-Grost Rupert 'Wolf' Wolfsen works for the US government, he is liaising with the US military in central America to help find a suitable cave where they wish to instigate a new top secret radio device for submarines?. They have trouble finding such a location until after a large landslide an entrance to just such a cave reveals itself. After setting up their equipment, they retire to base camp only to find that when they return the next morning, their irreplaceable transmitter has been taken and the guards dead. A search and rescue mission is authorised to go into the furthest reaches of the cave. Preposterous premise aside this was rather good fun, What Waits Below can only be described as a cross between Marshall's The Descent and Universals The Mole People, right down to the latter's albino civilisation who live there. Don Sharp just about retains an air of quality to proceedings, there may even be some pseudo political message in the ending.

Stoney I buy a lot of cheap movies, none of them are usually any good but this one surprised me. It is obvious that it had a low budget and the overall film making isn't very good but the ideas behind the story captured my interest. The thoughts of undiscovered caves deep within the earth containing life really excites me. If only this movie could be remade and altered a little on a much larger scale, it could be one of my favourites. This film was let down however by a low budget. The set wasn't bad but the costumes were terrible. The designs of the cavemen looked quite good, the dark eyes, pale skin and increased hearing are what you might imagine from a species who have evolved in a dark cave but I did not like those hairstyles (that's the 80s for you). The acting was poor and some of the characters were pointless. The opening scenes introduced two of the main characters well but other then that it should have been explained what had been going on exactly.Every now and then I'm inspired by a story and want to write something myself along the same lines, this had one of those inspiring stories. I highly recommend watching this if you don't mind B movies.

arrival I have never really given much thought to underground civilizations and the like, but this movie definitely gets you thinking!It's a bit slow to getting off the ground, but stick with it, it's well worth the wait!I didn't think the movie would be so good from the beginning, in fact to be honest, there's quite a poor start to it, and I suspect many would switch off before it gets going. I remained open-minded. I think that the idea was very imaginative indeed, and my only complaint was the movie was over too quickly. Would have made a two and half hour movie, no problem. Still, the idea of any great movie, like any great book, is to leave you wanting more.However, it had a very satisfactory end.Don't miss this if you get the opportunity - a gem worth watching.

Al_Truist80 Contains some plot spoilers.I desperately tried to like this having first seen it aged eight, but what seemed exciting / scary back then, I find pretty lame now. It's in the style of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Romancing the Stone, but not half as good. Set in Central America (not in South America, where it claims Belize is ) the story follows the US Army setting up a low-frequency transmitter as a navigational aid to subs. As a precaution this 'beacon' is to be hidden deep underground and to help locate a suitable place is elite mercenary and caveman Rupert Wolfson. When men operating the transmitter mysteriously disappear, `Wolf' and some anthropologists help in the search which takes them deep into the mountain. Here they encounter unforeseen perils, including a race of temperamental albinos. Actually filmed in Alabama and Tennessee (Cathedral & Cumberland Caverns respectively) this suffers from dreadful acting and screenplay, plus lack of imagination as the 'mystery' unfolds (not to mention numerous continuity & editing errors) An atmosphere of intrigue and ambiguous wonder is created to (almost) good effect at the beginning, with the opening monologue discussing unexplored wonders of the Earth accompanied by eerie music. This ambience is lost after some badly directed action and almost ruins the following helicopter distorted lens sequence, meandering us through the unwelcoming landscape like a drunkard. `2001'-style wonder is paired with suspense as we enter the caverns, combining some good cave locations with matte artwork and photography. But the camera seems more interested in what our characters are doing. Before long the low budget is apparent and aside from some interesting monsters, we're treated to silly sets and costumes. Characterisation is based on racial stereotypes and the general level of stupidity of that person. Take our main character: he is suave Englishman Wolfson, acting as a consultant for the army; an expertfighter and all around good-guy. No personality flaws, only bad dresssense. Two ugly English (natch) play scientists who are specifically there to die. The female lead (obligatory love interest) is talkie (but not outspoken) Leslie. Working with the Anthropologists she helps extract long-dead remains but will scream when faced with a fresh one. Not too bright. The main American contingent play embarrassingly inept and unprofessional soldiers obsessed with working the transmitter as if their lives depended on it. Wolf's friend George's only importance to the plot is to tell Wolf about the mission. He is a lieutenant and an idiot. There are also several local Latin-Americans assisting the US, one is accident-prone Santos who acts as a plot device to attract the monsters. Acting is at best poor and veteran Robert Powell doesn't even try to get to grips with his (admittedly awful) script. Apparently the main script was being rewritten every day during the shoot and it shows! There are some good `Predator'-style effects as the humans are viewed as a pink glow through the Lemurians' eyes, but their rock-shattering scream was unconvincing. I did like the idea that the Lemurians are sensitive to ultra-sonic waves though. The plot badly loses its way. The buildup is painfully slow and when the 'mystery' is finally resolved, it's a real anti-climax (not giving anything away, let's say not exactly a Close Encounters moment) The idea of discovering creatures deep inside a tropical mountain landscape appealed to me, but `Secrets of the Phantom Caverns' is a letdown. Underground albinos!