The Devil's Tomb   Starring: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Taryn Manning, Henry Rollins and Valerie Cruz Lions Gate Home Entertainment RRP: £12.99 LGD94203 Certificate: 18 Available 02 May 2011

A CIA agent sends a crack group of soldiers on a mission to recover a scientist from a secret underground research laboratory in the desert. Once inside, they find religious scriptures originating from various faiths, and a series of security locked doors. Click, their resident computer hacker gets them into a lift which plummets to a depth where they discover an artifact encased in a resin. Almost immediately, the soldiers begin suffering emotionally disturbing flashbacks, along with waking hallucinations. Their weaknesses and secrets are being revealed. Just what is the artifact, and what is it’s power? Even the scientist is not what he seems, and the soldiers realise they have been misled about what their mission actually entails...

There are a hundred and one horror films wherein an evil force reveals the protagonist’s guilty past. At least half of this film feels, in style and content, very much like one of The Exorcist sequels - or more accurately perhaps, the prequel. Sci-fi horror is also commonplace, at least ever since Alien emerged on the scene. There is a nice twist in that the artifact is not what you expect it to be from sight. The longer you watch, the more you become drawn into the proceedings, and therefore by the end you haven’t wasted your time. Even though this doesn’t exactly set the world on fire, it is an enjoyable viewing experience, coming in just above average.

The best character by far is Click, the techno wizard and reluctant soldier. The cast is lent weight with smaller parts by such acting dignitaries as Ron (Hellboy) Perlman as the scientist Wesley, and Ray Winstone as old soldier Blakely, who adopts a curious Godfather mafia accent that is weirdly out of place. Henry Rollins plays Fulton, and the lead soldier Mack is solidly handled by Cuba Gooding Jr.

The end of The Devil’s Tomb feels more like the start of something, rather than any sort of positive conclusion, but it does what it says on the tin.

6

Ty Power