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In this TV movie from ‘the master of disaster’ Irwin Allen, a group of strangers tour a cave together and become trapped after a cave-in. The tour guide (Dennis Cole) leads the group through a series of treacherous passages to escape, unaware that one in their midst is a fugitive from the law all too willing to take hostages. The cast includes Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend) as a crotchety old professor, Sheila Larken (The X-Files) as his beleaguered daughter, Susan Sullivan as a state senator and former love interest of the tour guide, and Leslie Nielsen as a cop still reeling from the death of his partner.
Cave-In was shot in 1979 but didn’t air until 1983. But even by ’79, this formula had grown pretty stale. There’s nothing in the movie that we haven’t seen in prior Allen productions. The climax of this film is the same as the one in When Time Ran Out, with all the characters having to cross a rickety rope bridge, one by one. Since this is a TV movie, the suspense is kept to a minimum, and no one (good) dies. Occasionally these myriad disaster movies rise above expectation through sheer star power or charisma, but Cave-In‘s cast appear weary, and the many flashbacks to try and deepen their characters only make the movie feel longer.
Directed by Georg Fenady. With Julie Sommars and Lonny Chapman.