Sanctum: Down the Hatch

It’s a good thing that “Sanctum,” an adventure flick opening today, is such a dismally bad movie. Otherwise it might matter that it’s not only bad, but evil. As it is, it will fade quietly into oblivion and we can go back to discussing Oscar winners.

Josh (Rhys Wakefield) resents his cave exploring father Frank (Richard Roxburgh). We know this because he hangs up on him on the phone, yells at him to anyone who will listen, calls him names you can’t print in a family website, and takes every opportunity to deride his integrity, values, and choice of career. Plus, Josh doesn’t like his hair. It’s not a nuanced script or performance. One can picture the scriptwriter’s instructions saying a lot of “express distain” or “sneer.”

Frank, annoyed by his son’s attitude, can’t take time to deal with it because he’s ensconced halfway through a massive series of caves deep within a mountain in Papua New Guinea. Some are filled with water and he’s convinced he can find a passageway to the sea. Why? Frank never adequately explains his mania, but it’s something akin to Hillary’s “because it’s there.”  Frank contents himself with berating his son for not carrying down some oxygen tanks as asked.

Once this family tension is firmly established, reestablished, and ground into the dust, the script gathers a group of explorers around Frank and Josh. They include the big wig financier of the exploration and his girlfriend. Wouldn’t you know it? A huge cyclone bears down on the cave, a storm so massive that it not only threatens to completely flood the dry parts of the cave but the downpour actually prevents the adventurers from climbing out.

Their only choice is through uncharted and treacherous tunnels.

I hate it when that happens.

Small mistakes lead to melodramatic deaths, complete with screaming and frantic yelling by the increasingly small band of plucky spelunkers.

What’s evil about that, you ask? Within 30 minutes, we have our first desperate act, in which Frank lovingly and gently drowns one of his friends, a fellow named Luko who’s been banged up by the rushing water. That’s right. This film has no heroic rescues or daring feats of courage. Its highest nobility is when one friend kills another.

Like little gods, the explorers “know” the caves will flood. They “know” that injuries are fatal, although none of them has medical training. They “know” rescue is impossible. All this knowing leads them to one conclusion: mercy killings.

A potentially (but not actually) exciting film about a brave band battling a cave becomes an argument for giving in to perceived fate instead of pushing on. It’s a case for assuming the worst, and a showcase for the arrogance of thinking they know what will happen. Because they so casually murder each other, there is no opportunity for anyone to rise to the occasion. There’s no light or hope in this world, certainly no God, which is ironic given the name “Sanctum” means a holy place of refuge.

The film is shot partly in 3D, and there are some awe-inspiring shots of water filled caves. Most of it, however, is not particularly beautiful. The script is as colorless as the world they inhabit and the acting as cold as the water. One is better off watching a caving special on the Discovery Channel than weighing oneself down with this weakly spirited movie.

The fact that it’s so poorly made is a mercy. If it were well-done, we’d have to be very concerned about the impact of the message of the film. As it is, we can stop talking about it now and go on with our cave-less lives.