First, maybe a little word on the original French title "Gueules Noires", which is very different from the international title "The Deep Dark" and can roughly be translated as "Black Snouts". It refers to how the hard and devastating work in the mining industry makes every person equal. Regardless of what race you are, or what skin color you have, working underground in the mines makes everyone's face black with dirt.
"The Deep Dark" is a prime example of the type of horror in which the French are specialized. Raw, sinister, unpleasant, and relentless terror with exclusively unsympathetic characters and without the slightest bit of comic relief. Pure and genuine horror, in other words, and I - for one - love it (despite several flaws).
In the 1850s, in Northern France, 27 miners tragically die when the shafts collapse shortly after they made an archeologically groundbreaking but deeply disturbing discovery. 100 years later, in the same mine, a versatile group of miners is forced to accompany an arrogant anthropologist down the shafts, because he's convinced the deep underground layers hide evidence of a previously undiscovered civilization. They find a new civilization, all right, but its deity turns out to be a terrifying and invincible monster.
The script of "The Deep Dark" certainly isn't without holes or massively implausible plot elements, but you simply got to love the grim atmosphere and claustrophobic tension that writer/director Mathieu Turi creates. And the monster, of course! I have seen thousands of horror movies, and I guarantee the monster of this film is one of coolest and most jaw-droppingly astounding ones of the last two or three decades. The creature is also as violent and bloodthirsty as it looks, which results in a handful of excessively gruesome deaths and make-up effects that are not meant for squeamish viewers. Highly recommended to true horror junkies.
