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Back in July of 2021, it was announced that V/H/S and Southbound filmmakers Roxanne Benjamin and David Bruckner were teaming up again for the survival thriller Fall Into Darkness, a remake of the 2014 Spanish-language film La Cueva. Benjamin would be directing the film, working from a screenplay Bruckner wrote with Nick Tecosky. Nell Tiger Free (Servant), Thomas Doherty (Legacies), and Lorenza Izzo (The Green Inferno) were all signed on to star. Filming was expected to begin at Lantica’s Pinewood Studios in the Dominican Republic in the fall of ’21. But Fall Into Darkness never went into production. And during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Free theorized that it fell apart due to the pandemic.

When asked for a status update on the project, Free replied, “I think Fall Into Darkness became a victim to Covid. You know how things were. There were so many beautiful projects that were potentially going to happen,...

In Darkness We Fall

Written by Javier Gullón and Alfredo Montero

Directed by Afredo Montero

Spain, 2014

The found footage genre gets an Iberian injection in La cueva, retitled In Darkness We Fall for English-speaking markets, which is playing in the Cult movie strand of this years London Film Festival. Certain specific Spanish atrocities have been well-received by genre fans over the past few years, so the textbook found footage premise may initially raise hackles, yet could be mined for some forlorn hope of entombed originality.

Five twenty-something friends share an impromptu vacation to a remote Spanish island — a spot of hiking here, a splurge of boozing there — all in order to escape broken relationships and stalled careers back in the real ‘adult’ world. After a heavy night of partying, one of the more passive-aggressive members urges the crew to follow him into an uninviting and stiflingly remote cavern, an idea...

An effective mood of claustrophobia cannot overcome the fact that you’ve seen this all before, and better. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): I’m getting tired of found-footage flicks

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

A bunch of Spanish 20somethings — two girls and three guys — head to a remote island for a camping getaway. One of them has brought along his videocamera, so he can post stuff to his blog later, and at first it’s all drunken idiocy round the campfire and some “hilarious” sneaking up on in-tent sexytimes. But then one of them finds a cave entrance and is all, “Hey, guys, let’s explore the depths of this subterranean maze without any equipment whatsoever except a couple of flashlights!” Soon enough, they’re lost, with no idea which way the surface is. There’s nothing supernatural going on here,...