The US military is running a test for a special type of radio transmitter, to be used to communicate with submarines, in a deep system of underground caves in Central America. When the signal from one of the transmitters suddenly disappears, a team of soldiers led by Major Elbert Stevens and cave specialists led by Rupert 'Wolf' Wolfsen including scientist Leslie Peterson are sent in to find out what happened. Exploring deep underground, they stumble upon a tribe of albino cave-dwellers who have apparently been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The cave-dwellers are hurt by radio frequencies and are able to see in infra-red frequencies, tracking the explorers by their body heat.
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You won't be disappointed!
Just perfect...
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
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.
The US military is running a test for a special type of radio transmitter in some caves in Nicaragua.When the signal from one of the transmitters suddenly disappears a team of soldiers,scientists and cave-specialists is sent to the cave to find what really happened.But the cave is not safe.It seems that a tribe of lemurian albino cave-dwellers lives there,who stalks its prey by their body heat."What Waits Below" is an overlooked horror movie,which obviously influenced Neil Marshall's 2005 horror hit "The Descent".Pretty creepy and entertaining horror flick with some suspense and effective scares.The action is fast and the infra-red stalking is a nice touch.7 out of 10.
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.
I just finished watching this movie and I must admit I didn't have high hopes. To my pleasant surprise this turned out to be a quite good movie. It wasn't a great movie, but I am very glad I got to watch it! During a test of a low frequency transmitter two men and the transmitter disappear. A team is gathered to search the caves where the test took place. Caves that never before have been explored by man. But, what waits them below they could never imagine.This story turns out quite original and I think that is maybe what makes the movie so good. The script is far from perfect, but it works. The acting is probably the best with the whole movie. It is generally good. The cinematography could, however, been better. I find it too boring. It's too straight. Though they did a pretty good job in creating the atmosphere and the mood. There were some pretty chilling sequences.When it comes to effects what can you expect from a 1984 B-movie? Well, they did OK on most of it, except for the monster. It was actually pretty bad and in fact personally I think they should have cut the whole monster. They way I see it, it rather took then give anything to the movie.I can recommend this movie because of it's story. There are few cliché there. As for the rest of this movie it is OK, but nothing out of the ordinary. However, well worth to watch.