Catacombs (2007) - One person can't carry this

On paper 'Catacombs' sounds like a reasonable concept for a horror movie.  An American tourist who's visiting her sister in Paris, gets lost beneath the city in a network of tunnels and ends up being stalked by something not particularly nice.

Sadly, that's about it and its major drawbacks is its singular focus on the one woman, Victoria (Shannyn Sossamon), who is the film's lone protagonist navigating through the various darkened tunnels.  This doesn't mean the movie is automatically bad as 'The Descent' uses a similar setting and story and yet manages to do so much more with it that 'The Descent' is a cult classic and this one is just forgettable.  From the outset, it becomes glaringly obvious that Victoria, despite her constant running, screaming, and encountering supposed threats, is going to survive until the final act. This predictability strips away any genuine suspense or fear, leaving the audience able to skip to the final ten minutes to actually find out what will happen to her.

And that's really all the film has, i.e. dark chaotic scenes where Victoria is frantically moving through the tunnels and it grows tiresome pretty quickly.  Maybe it's trying to build tension, but the repetitive nature of these scenes makes them feel monotonous.  There are only so many times one can watch a character sprint through dark, narrow corridors without losing interest. The film misses numerous opportunities to develop the few secondary characters who pop up (and guess what happens to them?!) let alone have time to any subplots that could have added depth.

Despite its actually quite clever choice of setting and the potential that could have been used, 'Catacombs' squanders these elements by sticking too rigidly to its lone protagonist and her repetitive plight. The catacombs themselves could even have been a character in their own right, yet are underutilized, with their potential to instill claustrophobia and fear left largely untapped.

There's not much in the way of gore if that's what you're looking for and although it may provide a few fleeting moments of fright, they are overshadowed by the repetitive and ultimately uninspiring journey through one dark, nondescript tunnel after the next.

4/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back