Highschool teacher and geologist Whitney (Henry Czerny) takes seven of
his students - good girl Ana Maria (Sandra Echeverría), cool guy with a
heart of gold Zeke (Kelly Blatz), blonde Jessica (Alison MacInnis),
problem kid Lopez (Walter Perez), nerdy Janis (Dani Miura), and the couple
that always wants to shag, Jock (Derek Craigie) and Cosmo (Carrie Finklea)
- to investigate some caves in the middle of the desert. What he doesn't
tell the kids of course is he has set out to study a new species he has
found living
down there. Bad thing is, he is the first to get slaughtered by the new
species he has planned to study. The kids start to panic of course and
try to make it out of the caves ... but nobody really knows the way, so
the creature - some kind of winged dog we are told, and maybe even the
legendary Chupacabra - picks them one by one and slaughters them.
Ultimately, only Zeke and Ana Maria are left standing (surprise surprise),
and they decide to try and launch a counter attack - which goes horribly
wrong and leaves Zeke dead as well. Ana Maria finds an opening to get out
of the caves, but while climbing up she comes face to face with the monster
- and chases it away using the flashlight of her camera. Finally out, she
finds herself in the middle of the desert, surrounded by miles and miles
of nothing ... Little more than your typical teen shocker with
your typical cast of characters, who all die in exactly the sequence that
seems to be cast into stone for this kind of film - so much so that you
can tell who's dying when and who's surviving when the characters are
introduced before the action even starts. Add to this a directorial effort
that is neither inventive nor atmospheric, goes out of its way to avoid
originality and makes the least of the film's cave locations, and an
uncharismatic ensemble cast, and you are left with - well, 80+ minutes of
boredom.
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