Bullet Points: The Devil’s Tomb (2009)
The Tubi streaming service never fails to come through with another film that sounds fun but will probably let me down. My desire to find these “diamond in the rough films” is at constant battle with my knowledge that I rarely ever see one that is worth labeling as such. Can a very solid cast and an interesting concept create success?
Synopsis: An elite group of soldiers on a covert mission to retrieve a scientist from an underground lab encounter an ancient evil in the facility.
- We’re a rescue team, not assassins: I am willing to bet that every military team featured in a film in the past 35 years is wishing it was the team from Predator. This film even features an obligatory Predator shooting scene where the team appears in a hallway and unloads hundreds of rounds without knowing what they’re shooting at. There are also other touches to the team that makes it fun. The tough Hispanic dude called Hammer, the young and attractive ladies, the nerdy hacker dude, and Jason London. They don’t have the toughness that we’ve seen in other movies featuring mercenaries on a mission like this but they aren’t boring either.
- Underground: The story of The Devil’s Tomb takes the main characters deep underground into an ancient site where some real weird shit has gone down. They immediately run into some infected people with strange skin lesions. Are they demons or something? I have no idea.
- The action unfolds: I wish I could say that the action is where The Devil’s Tomb really stands out but that isn’t the case. They definitely shoot their guns from time to time but there aren’t many scenes that are hardcore action packed. It doesn’t help that the infected people that they encounter aren’t really coming after them with much malice and when they do they aren’t easily killed with bullets.
- Gore: Okay. Finally something that I can speak favorably on. The blood and guts in the film is really something to see. Not a lot of CGI blood and there are a couple of really good head shots bring the gore. It’s definitely the best thing about the film, so far.
- Angels and Demons, oh my: The longer the film goes on the more and more questions I started to get about what the hell was happening. We had been meeting all sorts of demon-like entities but it isn’t until the final 20 minutes or so that we learn about the fallen angel buried in the ice. I know that sounds silly and that is because it is. The finale isn’t much better as we finally get some more time with Ron Perlman and whatever the hell he’s supposed to be. It really feels like they had too many ideas and then realized with 20 minutes left that they had to start paying them off. Not a good finish.
The Verdict: One look at the cast for The Devil’s Tomb and you might think for a moment that it has a real shot at being good. You may even read the synopsis and think like I did that this might indeed “be your kind of shit”. I know that films like this often find themselves on my watchlist on a streaming service only to die when they’re removed without ever being watched. This is one that I found recently and wasted little time before watching. It had a lot of the elements that I enjoy in a low-budget action/horror flick but failed to live up to the hopes that were generated by that stellar cast list. Cuba Gooding Jr. has been in some hot water of late so I’m hoping he got at least enough from this flick to pay some lawyer fees because there isn’t much more to be gained from The Devil’s Tomb. It’s a swing and a massive miss, folks. Don’t waste your time on this one.
