The Devil's Tomb (2009)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Why so much hype?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Major Disappointment

Some sorry multi cultural military unit is send to the Middle East to some underground research facility to rescue some researcher after earthquakes were identified in the area. Leading the operation is some CIA girl, who happens to be the daughter of the rescuee.Once they get there they run into a priest covered in boils. Further into the facility they find corpses in various states of destruction. Also some other guy is there who warns them and when shot re-awakens. Some of these semi-living creatures vomit green stuff onto people's faces which causes them to end up with boils as well. Behind a door they find another priest. This one healthy though. And is able to give some strange explanations. Meanwhile, members of the unit start having visions which lead them to do crazy stuff. The leader of the unit also keeps remembering throughout the movie a significant event during one of their other missions in battle.Eventually they are led to a room behind another door where the source of all this is. The explanation is actually interesting and surprising. They also end up finding the dad of CIA girl, but by now he's got other plans than just leave with the unit.Devil's Tomb has a strong cast in Gooding, London, Perlman, Moseley and especially the drop dead gorgeous Valerie Cruz. The overall idea behind what is going on is actually pretty original too. It just should have been told better. Sure the movie is pretty slow and the business with people having visions and acting out on them needs also to be handled better. It is a watchable movie if you don't have too high expectations.

Lifeboat (1944) someone can not be trusted.Ghost Ship (2002) - naked woman who is a temptressLifepod (1993) people get knocked off. Aliens (1986) soldiers tracking creepy things, which spray acid, in tanks give me the willies.Event Horizon (1997) mind reading monsters, visions seem real.Resident Evil (2002) super strong infected.Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009) rouge agent will turn on you. WWE -stone cold Steve Austin- disrespect any body, even your boss.Doom (2005) ancient writings equal creepy things.

What would you get if you took John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, set it underground, changed the characters from students to soldiers, and really pumped up the Christian portion? You get the Devil's Tomb. I just caught it as a free streaming film. It wasn't bad, but I certainly had hoped for more.There is a great cast in this film, but almost all of them seem to have forgotten how to act. Cuba Gooding Jr is wooden and unbelievable (and the opening "badass" voice-over is pretty hilarious in his high tenor voice). Henry Rollins can do many things, but portray a priest is not any of them. You just want him to buy it and get off screen.Of all of them, Ron Pearlman shines, stealing the scenes (to few) that he is in.Seriously though, if you want to see a more enjoyable version of this film? Watch John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.Both movies contain: References to Satan as the villain A strange cult of possessed followers Minions of the villain being taken over through gushing mouth fluidsPoD has Alice Cooper DT has Ron Perlman (who gets more screen time than Alice Cooper did).

As much as it pains me, I'm going to give this movie an even lower rating than it already has at the moment; a 3/10. It pains me because I'm a Rollins fan, but unfortunately, other than seeing him act, the movie has very little going for it. OK; lets walk through this movie. The cast seemed impressive enough with Cuba and Pearlman, the plot had possibilities, and after seeing the intro, it was clear the movie had a budget as well. But...it all went downhill from there. So we have an underground research base with a few zombie-like creatures in it. They talk trash, then get killed by the cliché-marines. The marines apparently have a total lack of solidarity with one another and some just wander off and end up getting killed by the zombies. We have an extraterrestrial-like entity, a fallen angel, trapped in a giant ice cube. The marines discover it, then walk away. Nothing is really done with it. At the end, the marines find out that the supposed goal of the mission, the rescue of a professor, is actually a trap by the female researcher/daughter who is also present. They were trapped in the base from the moment they entered. Oh OK. This could only have been achieved because their expert hacker was tricked in triggering the explosives inside and locking the door with a code - but the hacker may not be skilled enough to unlock the door, or to even notice something was wrong. The marines may not be skilled enough to de-arm the explosives. Only the female professor knows the code. I understand the idea to destroy the facility, but trapping the marines inside along with the surviving workers (by the 'good guys'!) is unnecessary. So the entire facility was set up with a self-sealing door and explosives with a trigger system by someone, and one of the two real goals of the mission is to blow everything up. By fooling some marines to be the trigger of the system and trapping them there? What? Couldn't the guy that set up the explosives - or anyone else for that matter, like the marines - use a remote control? The other goal is to save the soul of the possessed professor. Wait, how did anyone know he was possessed? The possessed professor talks some trash, then gets killed as well, in a rather unsatisfactory way. Thankfully he lives on for a few seconds so his bad soul can get banished, and his soul is saved. Good, otherwise all the sacrifices would have been in vain. People don't even know souls exist, but his daughter is willing to sacrifice countless lives to save her fathers soul. Because we know that, when there are two souls in a body, and the body blows up, the bad soul still owns the good soul or something. Henry Rollins had enough and walks into some barbed wire and dies. This sounds as unsatisfying as it really was. Finally, Cuba calls it quits and takes an elevator ride to freedom as the only survivor. Wait, did he finally get the code to unlock the doors anyways? I stopped caring...In all, this movie tries to copy the alien/doom/event horizon formula, where marines are trapped in a remote location fighting an alien enemy. However, it failed to excite.