What Waits Below

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.

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.

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.

Well this has been hiding under the surface, as it took a friend to mention about it for me pay notice. The copy I just watched happened to be there's too. 'What Waits Below' is a minor, but completely distinctive and enjoyable horror/adventure trek in some underground caverns. Neil Marshall's 2005 feature 'The Descent' might shoot to mind, but other than featuring albinos' (known as Lemurians') living the caves, the tone is much different. The adventure aspect easily beats out the horror elements that are looming. I found it to lose its way in the last 20 minutes, as the story shows up its lack of ideas and the script's thin base. Still after a slow beginning it keeps you watching and manages some effective shocks, interesting atmospherics and sprinkles of moody suspense with Denny Jaeger and Michel Rubini's edgily wounding score perfectly streamlining (if at times overshadowing) the presentation. Eerie locations and pastel set-designs within the cave system make it like you've entered another world and the make-up/costumes for the Lemurians' are quite standard. Director Don Sharp's tight and compact handling doesn't let its budget restraints entirely bog it down and the performances are mostly good. Robert Powell is an undervalued actor and makes light work of his performance by presenting an easy-going charm and class. Timothy Bottoms is efficient and the gorgeously fixating Lisa Blount gives a hardy turn. Modest low-budget horror/adventure item that goes on to promise more than it actually delivers.

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