8 Best Movies About Caves That You Should Watching Update 04/2024

Movies About Caves

It’s unlikely that you’d want to spend time with your pals in a cave, but there’s something strange about these claustrophobic locations that attracts Hollywood filmmakers. Western moviemakers keep returning back to these dark, cramped places for storylines that we enjoy seeing on the big screen despite our evolution out of caves. Numerous films have been made that feature caves, and we have to mention that the most of them were really frightening. Here is a list of the best cave movies of all time that feature caves as a primary setting. Some of the best cave movies are available on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

8. The Pyramid (2014)

The Pyramid (2014)

Even when most filmmakers were exploring the horror genre in 2014, Gregory Levasseur had the brilliant notion of filming a movie about the ancient Egyptian pyramids, which he believes may hold many long-forgotten mysteries. The film “The Pyramid” follows a group of archaeologists who discover a strange three-sided pyramid beneath the earth’s surface and immediately begin scaling down to investigate the strange structure’s peculiarities. In the dark tunnel-like architecture within, they are assaulted by flesh-eating cats that claim lives one after the other as they make their way towards the exit. However, this is only the top of the iceberg. The gloomy tomb is rife with terrors, and a spooky legend is just waiting to be unleashed. However, even though the film’s predictable jump-scares and horribly awful CGI did not fare well at the box office, its representation of deep, long caves and crevasses remained an uncomfortable memory for many viewers throughout the film’s runtime.

7. The Cave (2005)

However, despite the film’s title referring to an underground location within a mountain or cliff, the film’s tale ended up feeling more like “The Descent.” Nevertheless, “The Cave” stands out among the few noteworthy films that showcase restricted spaces in all its beauty! During a deep-sea cave diving operation that had to be terminated decades before, an explosion locks a team of scientific explorers inside, submerged and in complete darkness, with only each other for support. Mysterious creatures begin taking away one person at a time as they desperately search for a way out as the onslaught continues. In spite of the film’s mixed reviews from fans and reviewers alike, the film’s underwater portions managed to scare all those with a fear of water!

6. Journey To The Center Of The Earth (2008)

Journey To The Center Of The Earth (2008)

As the first in the “Journey” series, the film starred Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, and Anita Briem in the leading characters. Volcanologist’s adolescent son went on an excursion to Iceland with his uncle, where they met a former expert’s daughter, who helped them on their trip to find what the volcanologist had set out to do, and the film was an enormous success. During their ascent, the trio is forced to seek refuge in a cave, which unexpectedly opens them into an entirely new world, forcing them to battle both ancient sea monsters and land creatures in order to return home safely to their camp. It was a claustrophobic experience for the audience, even though the fantasy film was entirely computer-generated, until a beautiful, colorful world appeared on the screen full of mythical monsters who are now luckily legends.

5. The Descent Part 2 (2009)

This sequel didn’t do as well as its predecessor, which made a lot of money at the box office. ‘The Descent Part 2’ fell short of expectations because to a sluggish second half and a script that was as formulaic as it could be. A team of police officers and cave explorers, including the film’s protagonist, descend into the tunnels to discover what murdered the group of friends, picking up where the first section left off. It becomes increasingly difficult for the explorers to move forward as more and more animals attack them from all sides. Knowing that there is almost no way out, they fight off the hybrids, only to be killed in the assault. For the second time in a row, the caves were used as a backdrop for a film, and as expected, they were skillfully interwoven into the story. The movie benefited greatly from the audience’s desire to escape the humanoids and the claustrophobic feeling that accompanied it.

4. Sanctum (2011)

Sanctum (2011)

The film’s co-writer, who was at college in Australia at the time, was inspired by genuine events when he went on a cave diving adventure of his own. ‘Sanctum,’ a film in which the cave serves as the primary backdrop, is really an undercurrent story about a father-son relationship. Esa’ala Cave in Papua New Guinea was the subject of the film “Sanctum,” which told the story of an expedition team that was trapped in the cave by a tropical cyclone and had to find a way out of the cave in order to get back to civilization. This underwater survival thriller was produced by James Cameron and he made sure that every component looked nice. However, other from the general feeling of claustrophobia and a collective sigh of relief at the end, audiences did not have many positive things to say about the picture!

3. As Above, So Below (2014)

The horror film was shot entirely within the ossuary of the eighteenth century in the genuine Catacombs of Paris, an underground final resting place for human bones after burial. Five members of an unusual alchemical posse enter the Catacombs to find the elixir, which is hidden deep within. While searching for the philosopher’s stone in a deep underground tunnel that is filled with claustrophobia, tiredness, guilt, and terror, the gang is overcome by these emotions. Predictable, although the real-life gruesome underground tunnel sequence was chilling and added to the film’s overall impact.

2. A Passage To India (1984)

A Passage To India (1984)

While the film’s plot was not solely based on a dark tunnel, the caves did play an important role in the film’s overall narrative. When a City Collector’s fiancée visits him to see whether she may reside in the tropical land with him after marriage, the movie was set in early 20th century British India. It is during one of these local sightseeing excursions that she meets an elderly widowed surgeon, whom she quickly falls in love with and accuses of sexually assaulting her in the cramped spaces. The movie then focuses on the doctor’s trial and how things end up. ‘A Passage to India’, a David Lean-directed drama starring well-known Indian performers such Victor Banerjee, Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, and Dina Pathak, won two Oscars for best original score and supporting actress.

1. The Descent (2005)

The Neil Marshall-directed British horror picture was a worldwide box office hit, with spectators gripped to their seats the entire time. When six friends realize there’s no way out of a cave and that they may be stuck forever, they embark on a caving journey deep inside its unknown area, which is shown on the film’s somber poster as a human skeleton. As they descend further and further inside, they start falling prey to creepy hybrid creatures that survive only on human flesh. The story, however, does not end there. For this picture, the director used the caverns as a backdrop, and the film was filled with suspense because of the danger hiding in every dark corner.