What Waits Below (1984)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent, a Must See

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

If you're patient enough to stick with this film, and you dig eerie nightmarish imagery, this film is quite a treat! Personally, I really miss the atmosphere of films such as this that relied solely on the characters, and things not so human, without the use of glitzy computerized graphics, something today, in my opinion that has been over glamorized and almost used as filler. As I mentioned if you're patient you'll appreciate this film, it builds and if you hang on and agree with my review thus far you'll most likely really appreciate this film. All in all check it out, it's not a masterpiece by any means, although it rather strikes my fancy!

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.

I found the basic story incredible. However, when it comes to horror, stories generally are incredible; and I can think of many horror plots that are worse than this.The plot to begin with is a bit muddled. It is not clear why these soldiers are in the jungle, and who the enemy at the beginning is, and it might have been a better idea to have the two factions slugging it out in the caves as well as having to deal with the rockman.Nevertheless, the cast overcome the script, and Robert Powell shows that if you can play Jesus Christ you can play anything.I am glad that the rockmen never got to talk. It would have been too much if they started speaking American English like the extra-terrestrials do on Star Trek.All in all, this film is watchable.

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.