What Waits Below

[Kelly Kline]

One more thing - I bought a copy of this movie on DVD off of eBay, but it was in the European format (whatever that is) and wouldn't work in my DVD.  My brother said he bought some copies of it on Half.com.

[Kerry McCreary]

If this doesn't beef up the sarcasm, I don't know what will.  I was an extra in this film.  I was 9 or 10 years old at the time.  The reason I was even there at Cathedral Caverns, is because my sister's Girl Scout Troup was invited to help out with the make-up crew.  I find it amusing now to think that they paid us $35 per day to stand around all day each day for this.  Myself and my mom were dressed as lemurians.  And to juice it more....They forgot to have my mom take her glasses off in a couple of the shoots.  My sister was one the ones sick from the Carbon Monoxide incident.  BUT...It seemed SOOOOO Hollywood for my youthful eyes.  I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
PS...I have seen this on ebay for sale on VHS.  I've been meaning to buy one for myself.

[Gareth McCarthy]

I just bought this movie on DVD from www.blackstar.co.uk for £2.99. I remembered seeing it as a kid and thought that, at such a cheap price, it would be worth watching. Ok, it isn't great. Just as it started getting good when the Lemurians were running around the caves en masse it got really lame again. The knife-fight was badly edited and the concept of them just running away afterwards was pretty crap. With just a few touches it could've been good. It has a great atmosphere and some of the matte paintings are really good. If only the human/Lemurian contact was more substantial than the sub 15 minutes we actually got. On the DVD; don't get excited, it's a bad print and there's zip when it comes to extras. Wonder what stuff, if any, was deleted. Surely there should be a 20th anniversary re-release special edition DVD...but then again(!)

[Wil]

What makes this movie so much fun is that it was filmed right down the road.  As a matter of fact, my son and I were in the cave this morning!  I took him on the "commercial" tour of the cave so he could see the ballroom (the large room in the movie) and showed him a few of the stalagmites that were manufactured for the movie.  Why in a cave full of stalagmites did they need to create more?  Don't know...Anyway we then took what is called the historic tour which comes in from the original entrance and it gets steep and tight and dirty.  My kid loved that.  I'm going to get a copy of this corny movie from somewhere just so my boy can see the cave the way everyone who has seen the movie sees it...not the same.  If you are EVER in McMinnville, TN go to Cumberland Caverns.  The ballroom is incredible.

[Erik Dehkhoda]

Being a Visual Effects guy and a Sci-Fi fan, I have to admit I loved the film, despite it's flaws.
 
A percerption I got from the Lumerians home is that they were living in the remnants of an ancient spacecraft.  They also had alien circuit boards and various electronics for jewelry.
 
From what I've read about the film no one mentions any of this.  Am I mistaken on this?
 
Erik  
 

[Chrisb]

Erik–
Major Stevens and Lieutenant Neuman do stumble into a cave full of futuristic-looking machinery, perhaps hoarded from above having disturbed the Lemurians fragile senses as the transmitter did, but it's never fully explained in the film. Some of it looked pretty heavy though, so you might be right about the crashed spacecraft idea. Perhaps just part of an undeveloped plot strand.

[James Mitchell]

I was one of the Lemurians as well (so, what, that's 5 crew members here now, right? And, I know the whereabouts of 4 others, so we've got the numbers for a remake!).  It was fun when you were 12, anyway.  My wife says she wishes I still had my Lemurian outfit...hmmm...

[Bruce Howard]

OK...here's crew member number six...

I can't believe that I found this.  I entered a search for own name on tthe IMBd website (like Googling your own name), thinking that there might be an actor out there with the same name.  There was....he was credited with playing "drunk" on "I Dream of Jeanie"...but he was also credited with playing "Latin American Soldier" on "What Waits Below".  It took a few seconds to realize that that was ME, that I had made the credits for this movie as an extra (!) and that it had been mistakenly credited to this guy.  Same mistake on the New York Times site, too, and others that credit it to a script writer who also has my name.  Guess that makes me sort of a ghostly celebrity.

I've worked as an extra before, but that was the most disorganized set I was ever on.  Nobody could tell me where to go or even where to wait.  After an hour or so I walked up to someone as they were about to start shooting and asked, "Uh...do you guys need to use me for anything?"  After some shouted discussion, they decided that , yeah, I should go over there and look menacing in the next shot.   I suspect that if I hadn't done that I would have gotten paid to hang around and do nothing while wearing a khaki uniform and carring a huge rifle for a day.  But I got my four seconds of fame.


Sorry I missed the cave scenes.  Sounds like fun (except for the carbon monoxide).

[Dale" Denyer" Kells]

Wow! I can't believe I found this website. I was one of the extras the got to experience the glass contact lenses,
the itchy glue under the wig. And the most memoriable and crazy title, The first lemerian to drop from the carbon monioxide. I love having these great memories. And Timmothy Bottoms was an absolute riot as a lemurian!

[Mark]

Probably, the worst movie i have ever watched, was bored from start to finish, if their is any weirdo that thinks this film is even ok, they should be beat to a pulp!
The special effects!!!! dont even go their!

this is not lie
i would give it
0.5 out of 10
(the 0.5 is just for the actors turning up!)

[phritzz]

Hey, i remember this one.
Had some trouble tracking it down as it was called
Nicaragua Code (!?) in Sweden back in the 80s...
Nevertheless, it sucks in a cheesy kind of way.

[Gerry]

Inspired by Andrew's interview with the "cast", I finally got around to watching my DVD copy (that has sat unopened on my shelf for at least a year).

It was all I hoped it would be and more.  The snakes and the "red shirt" were awesome!  Lisa Blount was sleasy AND vulnerable.  The exploding cigarettes were priceless.

I will say that I liked the music.  Suitably eerie.  I also liked the Lemurian makeup (for the most part).  The above posts about 13 year old girl scouts rubbing 50 year old Lemurian inner thighs were a little creepy though.  The "alien" machinery in the caves was a cool concept.  Too bad it was never properly explored.  Not a bad way to waste 90 minutes.

[AJ]

...no fake formations exist in cave as we know it today.  i am a former guide of CC, and actually worked with the founders.

however, it is an awesome place to visit...and if you can do so, go on the wild tour

[kie]

just watched this via  [NO LINKS TO PIRACY SITES PLEASE - THERE IS A LINK TO BUY THE MOVIE IN THE REVIEW - thanks, mods] - haven't seen it for 20 odd years.... It's all over the place, but wasn't completely awful, I've seen far worse, there is some suspense for a little while...

GOOD:

Lisa Blount (fitty)
The Alien Machinery in the caves
Some of the Background Set Paintings
Decent Performances all things considered
The Animation on the Commodore 64

BAD:
Everything Else

BOTTOM LINE:

The Descent borrowed the core concept and got it right...


Your review made me laugh BTW, nice site

[KyleBrinkmann]

I remember this film from years ago and it had a few interesting ideas but failed in the execution of those ideas. To be honest I did like the idea of a hidden civilization!