I realise making an adaption of anything isn't an easy task, but they really missed the entire point of the original story.
The original story was a very slow burn. It took its sweet time setting everything up and every little bit of progress in it was very exciting. This movie throws that out of the window. Less than 30 minutes in and Ted is almost through the hole already.
The original story is a story about a random cave that our characters stumble upon and explore, as cavers. It's not a very character driven story at all. In fact, the characters could be nameless and the story wouldn't change. This movie tries to make it more character driven, with added drama and a family plot about their dad and uncle having explored the cave before them.
The original story is very subtle. It's somewhat near a road so when they first hear noises, they assume it's from the road. B's dog, Whip, comes with them down into the cave, and loves it down there, until they get closer to the hole. This movie puts a bunch of tools and chairs and weird stuff in the cave already, because what is subtlety? Random jumpscares from nightmares that Ted, in the original story, didn't get until after he went all the way in. And then showing the monster. Taking all the subtlety of the story, and throwing it right into the bin.
The point is that they horribly misused all the original material they had, and instead of trying to make either a faithful adaption of a beloved internet story, or a unique take on it, they made one of the most bland and generic cliche horror movies ever.
2/10 because of how little the original story mattered to the creators, but even disregarding that, it's a generic, boring 4/10 horror movie, at best.
The original story was a very slow burn. It took its sweet time setting everything up and every little bit of progress in it was very exciting. This movie throws that out of the window. Less than 30 minutes in and Ted is almost through the hole already.
The original story is a story about a random cave that our characters stumble upon and explore, as cavers. It's not a very character driven story at all. In fact, the characters could be nameless and the story wouldn't change. This movie tries to make it more character driven, with added drama and a family plot about their dad and uncle having explored the cave before them.
The original story is very subtle. It's somewhat near a road so when they first hear noises, they assume it's from the road. B's dog, Whip, comes with them down into the cave, and loves it down there, until they get closer to the hole. This movie puts a bunch of tools and chairs and weird stuff in the cave already, because what is subtlety? Random jumpscares from nightmares that Ted, in the original story, didn't get until after he went all the way in. And then showing the monster. Taking all the subtlety of the story, and throwing it right into the bin.
The point is that they horribly misused all the original material they had, and instead of trying to make either a faithful adaption of a beloved internet story, or a unique take on it, they made one of the most bland and generic cliche horror movies ever.
2/10 because of how little the original story mattered to the creators, but even disregarding that, it's a generic, boring 4/10 horror movie, at best.