An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2020’s The Devil Below
After finding a ghost town and its abandoned mine, a group of researchers accidentally release the creatures living deep within its caverns.
Is it Scary?
Absolutely not, there’s nothing scary about this movie at all. There’s one jump scare in the entire movie and it’s previous obvious it’s coming. Even the monster design isn’t scary or creepy which is probably why you barely see them in the movie.
Detailed Plot:
The film opens with what looks like B-roll of a mining company doing their thing before we see a trailer with “Shookum Hills Mining Co”. The owner of the mines, Schuttmann (played by Will Patton), and his son exit the mine debating whether Schuttmann should fire an employee who is causing an unsafe work environment.
If you’ve seen the movie poster you know there’s also monsters in that mine, so Schuttmann has more serious unsafe work conditions to worry about. But, I’m assuming at this point he doesn’t know about the monsters.
As his son goes back to the mine to get his tools, he’s attacked and dragged away by an unseen, but very quick, monster. Schuttmann tries to grab his son but he’s slapped by the monster and stabbed with something that makes him pass out. The last thing he sees is his bloody son being dragged into the cave.
We cut to our main character, Arianne (played by Alicia Sanz) some time later researching Shookum Hills. She plays a recording that should be called “A Little Bit of Exposition” which tells us she’s been hired by a man named Darren Atkins (played by Adan Canto) to lead a team to the mine.
Before Arianne leaves, she stares at a picture of a little girl with a man in the forest, presumably she is the little girl and the man is her father. I’m sure there’s some traumatic story regarding the two that will fuel Arianne’s character arc.
We next see Arianne driving Darren’s small team consisting of the religious Shawn (played by Chinaza Uche), annoying friend Terry (played by Jonathan Sadowski), and private security Jaime (played by Zach Avery) to Shookum Hills. Turns out it’s not the easiest place to get to as Terry questions Arianne’s driving, since they’ve been on the road for four hours and have yet to reach it.
The group stop off at a small store that is made to look creepier than it actually is or, their power is out since it’s pretty dark despite it being daytime outside. There’s also a random guy in the back sharpening a knife. Why? Because who doesn’t sharpen their knives in the dark while staring at a customer like they owe you money.
Arianne enters and asks the shopkeeper for water, coolant, and directions to Shookum Hills pointing out that the last time it was on a map was 1972. The shopkeeper tells her he’s never heard of the place and follows that up with threats for her to go back to where she came from.
After she leaves, the store the shopkeeper calls someone named Bill on the radio and informs them they have a problem. Despite the threat the group forges ahead and Arianne soon realizes they’re being followed.
After a short and uneventful chase, the station wagon stops, appearing to let them get away. But Arianne realizes the station wagon was only making sure they didn’t turn down the hidden road leading to Shookum Hills. Once the station wagon drives off, Arianne returns to the road and finds the route they need.
The group reach an electrified fence which they question as it’s in the middle of nowhere. While Shawn expresses his hesitancy and Jaime debates with Terry on how to move forward, Arianne uses a rope to climb up a tree and down the other side.
The rest of the group follow her lead and proceed on foot through the woods. That night, the group set up camp and we finally learn what the hell this whole trip is about.
Darren is looking for the vanished town of Shookum Hills as he believes it’s disappearance is due to a sinkhole from the mine located in the town. But, Shawn believes the sinkhole was actually a government program created in response to the Russian’s Well to Hell.
The Well to Hell is an urban legend that says in the 1970’s the Russians dug a hole 8 miles deep into the Earth in Siberia. They then lowered a heat resistant tape recorder and were shocked when they listened to the recording. Horrific and tortured screams coming from deeper within the hole. Believing they had found hell, the Russians, out of fear, ended the program and lied about what they had found.
Here’s the thing, the story is partly true. In the 1970’s the Russians did dig a hole into the earth that reached about 7.5 miles deep except it wasn’t in Siberia. It was actually in the Kola Peninsula and became known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole. The project ran out of funding in the 1990’s partly due to the fall of the Soviet Union and the hole was closed up.
Shawn tells the group about the urban legend but conveniently leaves out the true story, also for some reason he says the hole is in Siberia despite he, himself, calling it the Kola Superdeep Borehole. It’s called the KOLA Superdeep Borehole because it’s in KOLA!
Anyway, down by the fence another group of people, possibly friends of the shopkeeper and Bill, find the generator powering the electric fence has been destroyed. They ascertain whatever did it, did it with their bare hands so we know it wasn’t our group of main characters.
Somewhere else in the forest one of Bill’s Friends (they’re not given a name or anything so that’s what we’ll call them for now) is checking another part of the electric fence. Hearing something coming from a small hole in the ground, he puts his ear to it. In a jump scare, a tentacle impales him through the ear, killing him.
Back at the generator Schuttmann arrives and it seems Bill’s friends all work for him… or maybe he’s Bill? We never find out. Schuttmann orders his people to find our main group and force them to leave the area no matter what it takes.
At camp, Terry asks Darren where he found Arianne and Darren replies from a colleague she assisted who described her as arrogant and self-absorbed. It’s easier to tell the audience character traits than it is to show them.
Later Darren tells Arianne he believes the coal mine must be filled with a rare type of mineral called Anthracite and is hoping to study it. I feel like there are easier ways to get anthracite but okay. At one point during their conversation they are interrupted by Darren’s phone alarm telling him to take vitamins. It was complete random and a weird inclusion so that can only mean that alarm will come into play at a very important point later. Chekhov’s Alarm!
The next day the group continue their trek through the woods and find several sirens posted along the route. Jaime finds it weird but Darren dismisses his worries believing it’s simply a warning system for gas leaks.
The group hide when the station wagon from the day before drives by, for some reason Arianne is able to tells this means Schuttmann’s group knows they’re there. I mean she’s right but how would she know that? It could just be on patrol.
As they continue forward they finally find the abandoned Shookum Hills town and soon find the entrance to the mine covered by several large electrified grates.
Despite Arianne’s warnings, Jaime disables the electricity and uses bolt cutters to create an opening into the hole. Terry lowers equipment to scan the depth of the hole and search for anthracite along with allowing him to hear what’s down there.
The scan proves fruitful when it finds anthracite but Terry hears strange growls and a roar at the bottom. He replays the sounds to the team not realizing the rope lowering the equipment has wrapped around his leg. He’s suddenly dragged down the hole with the rest of the group unable to save him.
At the bottom, Terry is bloody but still alive, he screams for help but we see something drag him away. Arianne sprints into action grabbing climbing equipment and giving another set to Jaime so the two can descend into the cave.
Reaching the bottom, they look for Terry but find no sign of him while we see something run behind them. Their gas detectors start to beep and Arianne urges Jaime, who has pulled out a gun, to start climbing back up or else the gas will kill them.
Meanwhile outside of the hole the station wagon arrives and the driver exits pointing a shotgun at Darren and Shawn demanding to know how long it’s been open. Why wasn’t anyone guarding the hole if it’s so important?
Darren tells him there are three people down there and instead of helping, the man decides to cut the rope. Before he can cut both ropes, Shawn hits him on the head with a large rock knocking him out. Arianne and Jaime climb out of the hole and the group argue about what they saw take Terry.
Darren demands the group leave and Arianne questions what they’re going to do about Terry as they can’t just leave him down there. It’s weird that Darren is so willing to leave his friend down there and that Arianne is the one who is worried.
They also found the anthracite which is the entire reason Darren wanted to find the mine. It was his entire motivation, and now he’s willing to leave his best friend and claim to fame behind on the drop of a hat?
The group eventually do drive off in the station wagon but quickly crash into a small convenient sinkhole and are forced to escape on foot.
Later that night, the guy Shawn knocked out wakes up and radios someone about a breach. Before he can give anymore information he’s attacked and killed by some unknown monster we don’t get to see. It was also nice for the monster to wait until he was awake to kill him.
The sirens around the forest all begin to sound as flood lights are turned on. Our main group start to hear weird growls coming from the forest. They’re then attacked by a monster and Shawn is either killed or dragged away. Jaime fires several shots at nothing because the only person with night vision goggles is Arianne.
Also that whole sequence was in night vision with frantic camera movements. It was not the right directing choice at all since you couldn’t tell what was going on. I didn’t even know it was Shawn that was taken/killed until several minutes later.
The group run out of the woods reaching the road and are saved by one of Shuttmann’s patrolling trucks. They’re brought to a safe house where we get a good look at the monster… in a drawing.
At the safe house our main group meet some of the locals, Shelby, Ellroy, and Shuttmann. We get a bit more of the backstory and find out that Shuttmann was actually the founder of the mining company. After he lost his son he has dedicated his life to preventing the monsters from escaping the mine.
When asked “what is this place”, Shuttmann calls it purgatory, saying it judges your sins, and you either come clean or get destroyed. Dude, needs a vacation. Also the movie is trying really hard to add an extra layer to the “monsters in hole” story.
We also find out Arianne’s father was a tracker and seemingly taught her everything she knows. It’s also implied he’s either dead or missing. That’s literally it, there’s nothing more to that story and it doesn’t affect this movie in anyway.
A call comes over the radio informing Shuttmann about the open hole which causes Shelby to flip out on Darren as he let them loose. Arianne offers to show her where the opening is and Shuttmann orders them all to go and seal it.
They don’t get too far before Shelby starts yelling at Darren again for releasing the monsters which then attracts the monsters to the group.
This reminds me that Shuttmann’s group never explained how the monsters work to our main group so they’re not aware that the monsters are attracted to sounds. The audience might only know this because of the drawing from earlier with the small note that they’re attracted to sounds. But Shelby is part of Shuttmann’s group and knows this more than anyone, yet she raises her voice out in the middle of the parking lot.
With the monsters approaching, the group hide between trailers. Shelby then receives a call from her walkie talkie (more noise) telling her to stay in the safe house, too late for that.
Arianne spots a safe house at the top of a nearby hill but before the group make an escape, Elroy decides to sacrifice himself to give them time. He grabs a molotov cocktail and tells the group to run.
So we have Shelby, Darren, Jaime, and Arianne left. The group make it to the safe house and are immediately surrounded. Shelby finally tells the group the monsters are attracted to noise and her walkie talkie goes off. She also tells the group the monsters aren’t trying to kill you immediately but instead paralyze and take their victims down the hole. For what? Who knows.
The monsters start breaking through the house forcing the group to escape through a hole in one of the floors. Unfortunately this leaves them lost in a series of underground caves. Shelby decides to buy the group some time by creating a diversion. Before she leaves she hands the group a few grenades.
Why not use the grenades themselves as diversions, maybe toss them down a different cave and attract the blind monsters to go that way instead of sacrificing yourself?
Shelby runs off yelling at the monsters which doesn’t cause much of a diversion since the monsters are still after our main group. Using some grates, the group decide to cover up a hole they try to hide in and Jaime attempts to use a grenade against the monsters. Somehow he doesn’t notice the monsters are too close and they knock the grenade out of his hands.
He’s also already pulled the pin.
The grenade goes off severely injuring Jaime and we see him dragged off by the monsters. Darren and Arianne continue through the caves eventually losing the monsters.
Darren wants to give up and reveals to Arianne he only did this for the money as a private mining company offered him a lot of it to find the anthracite. Arianne refuses to give up but she also shares a story of her past.
On her last tour in the Himalayas ,during a climb, an experienced climber fell off of a cliff. She tried to save him but couldn’t pull him up. In the end, she had to cut the rope leading to his death. Why is she telling Darren this right now? DRAMA!
This feels like forced background information that has nothing to do with their current situation unless this is her way of telling Darren she’s leaving him. Nope, because right after her story she tells him “but I won’t leave you behind.”
She then immediately leaves Darren behind and promises to get help. What the fuck is going on with this script? Before she leaves, she does leave Darren with the last grenade though… so that’s helpful. Arianne finds a way out of the caves but has to hide as the forest is teaming with monsters. She’s immediately knocked out and captured.
Arianne wakes up underground on a raft with a possibly dead Shelby next to her. Their captain is one of the monsters who quickly stabs Arianne with its paralyzing tentacle.
Arianne wakes up spotting a still alive Shawn and Darren near her. Darren attempts to pass her the last grenade but the two are still suffering from some paralysis. Two monsters grab Shawn and bring him a much larger monster that sucks him up using it’s tube-like mouth.
Arianne is next but luckily the monsters don’t notice she’s grabbed the grenade. Darren uses his phone’s alarm to cause a momentary distraction and Arianne thrusts the grenade into the large monster’s mouth.
She’s able to run off just as the grenade goes off killing the large monster. The entire scene has a huge blur effect on it, I guess to simulate the paralysis of the characters. But the audience isn’t paralyzed so why are we seeing it this way, especially since it makes it really hard to see what’s going on.
Darren and Arianne run off eventually finding the original climbing gear they used to rappel down the hole in the beginning of the movie. They start climbing up the rope but the monsters are right behind them. One monster climbs up the rope and grabs onto Darren.
Arianne passes her knife to him telling him to kill it. Darren stabs it and instead of continuing to stab it he cuts the rope echoing Arianne’s story back to her. He falls to the ground with the monster and the other monsters eating him, I think. It’s hard to see what they’re doing to him.
Schuttmann rescues Arianne by pulling her up the hole the rest of the way. His group then use flamethrowers to kill the monsters that are climbing out.
Schuttmann drives her back to her truck at the fence and tells her about his son. He then asks if she wants to stay and continue fighting the monsters to ensure they never get out. Arianne asks why they don’t tell someone about the monsters and Schuttmann gives some vague answer about “they won’t believe us, they already know”. This just tells me the writer had no answer to that question.
Arianne appears to decline the offer to stay but then returns to Schuttmann after grabbing her rope. The film ends with the two driving back to the safe house to continue watching over the area.
Review:
The Devil Below is not good. Character personalities and decisions don’t make any sense. We’re told character traits instead of shown and then they don’t even match what we see. For example, at one point Terry asks Darren where he found Arianne and Darren says, from a colleague she assisted who described her as arrogant and self-absorbed. Arianne is never really shown to be any of this. In the very next scene she even makes a joke and quotes Yoda.
Instead of just suspending your belief, you have to completely throw it out just to accept the situation that is happening in the movie. Why are Shookum Hills residents using walkie talkies without headphones when they know the monsters are attracted to sound? After 40 years they haven’t figured out another solution? Is texting not a thing? Why is Shelby yelling when they’re outside?! They have detailed drawings of the monster meaning they’ve studied them and yet, they can’t get anyone outside of the town or the authorities to believe they exist?
There’s also no character arcs in the movie so everything just sort of happens to random bland characters. Arianne comes close twice to starting a character arc but both times it’s thrown out the window.
The backstory with her father is presented at the beginning then it’s discarded. In the last half hour of the movie she talks about the climber who cut the rope so you think, “oh she’ll redeem herself by saving Darren when the same situation happens”. But, when the situation happens, Darren cuts the rope and she does nothing. There’s no character growth for anyone.
This is why it feels like I was watching a pilot episode for a bad tv show. Everything presented feels like it was laying the foundation for a next episode.
Besides all of that, the acting of Will Patton, Alicia Sanz, and Adan Canto was pretty good and the only saving grace of the movie. Unfortunately the script was bad so they could only do so much.
Don’t watch The Devil Below, there’s no point. It’s not a good movie and while it’s not terrible, it will leave you feeling like you wasted your time.
Cast IMDB