What Waits Below

IMDB should have this movie as Action/Adventure in the same vein as The Mummy (1999) or King Solomon's Mines (1985) which is about as good as What Waits Below but maybe on a even smaller budget.

Anyhow the story follows a mercenary who finds himself helping out some anthropologists uncover some subterranean culture that exists as a pretty small tribe. A small army outfit gets involved as they want to setup some tech underground for their own purposes. Obviously there are going to be conflicting interests within these groups and that's were the story gets interesting.

On the acting side; it was really good to see the beautiful Lisa Blount again as the only other time I saw her was in Dead and Buried (1981) a horror I definitely recommend as its one of my favourite mystery horrors of all time. Robert Powell also doesn't disappoint whom is always great in every role I've seen him play and it was equally interesting to see his take on playing the adventurer type its just a pity it was on such a low budget. Still a good movie and a must see of fans of these types of movies just don't go in expecting Indiana Jones.

I had to principal reasons to check out the relatively obscure 80's cave-horror movie. First of all because I read in several reviews that the film can be considered as an antecedent of Neil Marshall's acclaimed 2005 hit "The Descent", in which a bunch of extreme sport chicks encounter a strange breed of predators in a previously unexplored cave. The second reason is because this was the last meaningful film of Don Sharp. This underrated Australian-born director made a few very cool movies for Hammer studios, like "Kiss of the Vampire" and "Rasputin: The Mad Monk", as well as a few other sadly overlooked genre gems like "Dark Places" and "Psychomania" (about a gang of zombie bikers!). "What Waits Below" has a peculiar but potentially interesting premise, and dark ominous caves have always been effective settings for horror flicks. Whenever a group of teenagers, scientists or speleologists plummets down a cavern, there's always some type of monster or estranged civilization to knock them off. The problem here, however, is that takes an enormous long time before something happens and when the menace does eventually gets personified, you'll only feel underwhelmed and maybe even tempted to chuckle. Robert Powell, who starred in some bizarre horror films before like "The Survivor" and "Harlequin", plays a caving expert hired by the army to install a radio transmitter inside a Central American cave. I think it was to remain in contact with submarines, or something… I didn't quite understand that part. Anyway, not important, because the radio as well as the soldiers on guard mysteriously vanish during the first night and Powell leads an expedition deeper down into the cavern. Plentiful of dull conversations and false scares later, the group stumbles upon a whole community of albino dorks. The cave people seriously don't look the least bit scary. Earlier in the film, there' a confusing sequence with some sort of snake monster that peeps out of a hole in the stone wall and kills off one of the soldiers. Even though that creature is a lot more horrific – albeit also a bit cheesy and typically 80's – it would have been a better idea to revolve the film on. Don Sharp generates a bit of morbid atmosphere in the beginning of the descent, but it quickly becomes tedious and too enticing to fast forward. Still, good performances by Lisa Blount and Timothy Bottoms as the despicable army superior.

In terms of plot, mid '80s subterranean horror/adventure What Waits Below is a lot like Neil Marshall's The Descent (2005), both films revolving around a group of speleologists running into trouble when the cavern that they are exploring turns out to be home to a race of savage underground humanoids. In execution, however, the two films couldn't be more different...

Where The Descent is an expertly crafted white-knuckle thrill ride that delivers cool cannibalistic creatures guaranteed to scare the bejeezuz out of the viewer, What Waits Below is a plodding cheeze-fest that offers up slimy hand-puppet snake monsters and laughable albinos with silly haircuts.

Robert Powell, who is most renowned for his titular role in Jesus of Nazareth, makes for an extremely lacklustre hero (could this guy really find work as a mercenary? He looks more like a hairdresser to me) and Lisa Blount is bland as the token babe with a brain. The real stars of the film are the stunning underground locations, but as awe inspiring as the spectacular caverns and colourful rock formations undoubtedly are, they cannot possibly adequately compensate for the stodgy direction, weak acting, cruddy props and terrible dialogue ("In a cave, the only predictable element is the unpredictable").

3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for the surprisingly gory shot of a dead soldier with his face all messed up.

This British film set in the US is a fine example of what UK cinema used to be before they adopted gangsters & football hooligans as their only subject matter.

Starring Robert "The Detectives" Powell it revolves around a specialist sent into assist the military in setting up a transmitter deep within an unexplored cave complex. Once inside they discover a lost civilisation who aren't all too happy to see intruders.

Robert Powell is excellent and demonstrates again why he has always been a very underutilized actor. The presentation is brilliant as is the score.

Allegedly the movie was filmed a couple of miles down in a real cave complex, if so that is highly impressive though a fair few scenes look like they were more likely located in a studio.

Not sure why this deserved an R rated but regardless is a damn fine effort and an enjoyable piece of British cinema.

The Good:

Looks great

Robert Powell

Decent story

The Bad:

Falls apart a bit near the end

My review was written in June 1986 after watching the film on Lightning video cassette.

"What Waits Below" is a dull rendering of a lost race fantasy yarn. Filmed in 1983 under the title "Secrets of the Phantom Caverns", picture received only a test release in November 1984, subsequently appearing in video stores.

Robert Powell to;ines as Wolfson ("call me Wolf"), a soldier of fortune, first encountered being chased around Nicaragua by enemy troops. He's recruited by military pal George (A. D. Weary) to go to Belize and help U. S. Army Major Stevens (Timothy Bottoms) make the Omega Station there operational (transmitting signals to aid submarines in navigation).

Near the Omega base, a team of anthropologists is exploring caves and being bossed around by Major Stevens. Seismic tests by the army force an opening in the rocks and soon thereafter, army guards are killed and the Omega transmitter is stolen.

Stevens, Wolfson and the scientists search the new cave and find a lost race of fabled Lemurians, styled here as albinos. The Lemurains stole the transmitter because its high frequencey signal was bothering their sensitive hearing. In warring with this lost race, many casualties occur until Wolfson finally escapes and orders the caves sealed off permanently, to leave the Lemurians in peace.

Extremely tame, "What Waits Below" meanders around below ground without the expected action-adventure excitement. Except for a huge snake head that attacks in one scene, it is minus the monsters that could have made this a fun picture for kids.

An impressive cast is wasted, with most of the attention resting on vast caverns (filmed in Alabama and Tennessee locations), augmented by okay mattework and miniatures.