Catacombs (2007)
Directors: David Elliot, Tomm Coker
Cast: Shannyn Sossamon, Alecia Moore aka P!nk
Lions Gate / Rated R / Widescreen 1.85:1 / Dolby / Language: English, French / English, Spanish / 90 minutes / Purchase: DiabolikDVD.com
Neurotic scaredy-cat Victoria is invited to Paris by her fearless, free-spirit sister Carolyn (P!nk) to blow off some steam. She arrives exhausted and overwhelmed by the city but Carolyn wants to take her to an underground (literally) party straight away. The party is being held in the (in)famous underground ossuary beneath Paris that houses approximately 7 million dead bodies called, well, the Catacombs.
When they arrive tentative Victoria hates it right away. The mass of people, the oppressive heat and the claustrophobic surroundings are too much for her. She meets Jean Michele, the party coordinator and he talks her into going swimming in the caverns with a small groups of friends that includes her sister. Before the swim, Jean Michele tells a story of a mutated freak raised by a cult that lives in the Catacombs. This is unsettling news to Victoria, everyone in the group jumps in and has some fun skinny dipping, but stick-in-the-mud Vicky just wants to return to the party. When no one wants to walk her back, she decides to find it herself.
She gets lost in the morbid labyrinth and is chased by the goat-headed freak from the story she just heard. While running she finally finds the party but it’s being broken up by the police. She gets trampled in the herd of people and loses consciousness. When she awakes she finds herself alone in the dark, dank, scary caverns. The rest of the story is her frantic attempt to escape. She sweats a lot, screams a lot and was so annoyingly nervous and scared, I wanted to kill her myself.
This is produced by the people that brought you the Saw franchise, Twisted Pictures and written/directed by first timer, Tomm Coker. Coker’s first outing was a bit of a bust for me. The story had a lot of potential but the large gaps of nothing made it boring. By nothing I mean Victoria running through the caverns screaming. There was a lot of that. When something did happen, it wasn’t at all suspenseful because the “killer” just pops up here and there. Who cares?
The acting was pretty good. P!nk was even decent in her first starring role. The direction was actually fun too, except you never get a real clear shot of the villain. I guess it all falls apart at the story. The most horrible thing you can do in a movie, especially a horror movie, is make it boring and/or predictable. Catacombs was both. These days you can’t have a horror movie without a twist ending and this one is no different. The twist was stupid because of continuity. When (if) you decide to not heed my advice and you watch this, pay attention at the first rave scenes.
There was also a lack of the over-the-top violence and gore you expect from Twisted. Yes, there was enough to fill the requirements of a modern day horror flick, but I come to expect excess from my peeps at Twisted Pictures. Oh, well…I’ll just wait for Halloween and the next Saw installment.
I was wondering if it was worth checking out, just because I love footage of the Catacombs. They’re so amazing. Too bad about the lack of gore though. I’ll probably skip it. Interesting review.