Sanctum

James Cameron executive produces Sanctum and it’s his return to his beloved watery underworld. Director Alister Grierson's film concerns a group of underwater cave explorers who have to find an escape route to the sea after becoming trapped down a cave in Papa New Guinea. How much you enjoy this film is down to two factors. How thrilled you are by the scenes of peril and how annoyed you are by dodgy CGI and some very ropey acting. Grierson actually does a good job of getting the claustrophobic feel of the caves and directs the action scenes well, giving a sense of tension and genuine danger. Accidents are a regular occurrence and their aftermath, including a few gruesome corpses, isn’t skirted over. However, it’s between these scenes that the film suffers badly. A very clunky script (including some oddly crude one-liners) is stumbled over by some very D list actors. One death scene in particular provides unintentional laughs when the actor in question (no spoilers here) mourns the death of another with a facial expression that can only be described as some who is constipated. Speaking of the actors, this is a very small budget cast and usually a group of unknowns works perfectly well in films like this as you really don’t know who’s going to make it or not. The problem here is that the group is headed by the relatively well known Richard Roxburgh and Ioan Gruffudd (complete with terrible US accent) so it’s not surprising to see that they don’t buy the farm first. The rubbish 3D adds nothing, but overall, despite its many flaws, if you’re not expecting too much from this you should get some level of enjoyment.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Some suspect acting aside, this has the occasional thrill without ever going on to be anything greater. Rating: 6/10