Below the Earth's Surface (2008) Movie Review, Film Still and Poster

Germany 2008
Director: Sebastian Vigg
Cast: Liane Forestieri, Marco Girnth, Michael Lott, Ercan Durmaz, Oliver Stritzel, Christian Grashof
Rating: R
Language: German
Release Date: 2 June 2008 (Germany)
Running Time: 1 hour 34 minutes

The Movie Review

Below the Earth's Surface film still 1


BELOW The EARTH'S SURFACE
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Young geologist named Nina (Liane Forestieri) almost loses her nephew because of a small sinkhole which eventually alarms her that this incident might just be the preambule of a huge one. Panic, she intrudes the Montan Energie Company to steal the map of the city, because that sinkhole may just be caused by the abandoned mining tunnels which weave evenly throughout the city. And the head of Montan, Dr. Schneider (Horst-Gunter Marx), is the one responsible to fill up the tunnels with concrete to avoid potential danger.

But no one believes her, while time is running out and more sinkholes suck down anything above them. Mostly of concern, is a hospital with 400 patients in it, which is predicted to collapse within 24 hour! Nina Thiemann turns her attention to her own colleagues: Ali (Ercan Durmaz), Witzel (Michael Lott), Josef (Oliver Stritzel) and her own father (Christian Grashof), to do preventive things even beyond their scope, although the team itself has an internal issue pertaining ex-wife... (D'oh) and fortunately, her ex-boyfriend, Thomas (Marco Girnth), happens to work in Montan Energy and he's an explosive expert (just what she needs! More D'oh) But will Nina and co solve the problem or will it be too late?

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The movie opens with a skinny dipping scene featuring beautiful extra (Figuran), can I say that they know how to lure the potential demographic viewers of this genre (Read: Men!)? It's a rare thing to put some nudity into disaster movie, but even so experienced viewers would instantly notice this movie is not something to put high hopes for. So, it's best for you guys to stop comparing it with such expensive disaster movies such as Dante's Peak (1997) (cue deadly skinny dipping scene) or Volcano (1997). Everything is inferior to big-budgeted Hollywood movies with fair acting skill and lousy CGI, but on the level with you all mates, Below the Earth's Surface is far Superior to many many low-budget disaster movies from Hollywood or from SyFy Channels.

-- Start of Spoiler Possibility Alert --
Probably (just probably) the writer has seen too much of My Bloody Valentine (2009), that they inserts mine shafts scene complete with the killer, only this killer comes with a strong motive. A bit of Slasher and Disaster? A quite good deviation from the regular course of disaster plotline, and I think it results in better final product.
-- End of Spoiler Possibility Alert --

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Shot almost entirely in Germany, "Below the Earth's Surface" AKA "Gaping Abyss" AKA "Der Abgrund: Eine Stadt sturzt ein" however brings up a unique source of disaster, not again and again about volcano, meteor, flood or tornado but Sinkhole! This phenomenon once gains wide attention when a local TV Station in Indonesia aired some pieces of info and facts about Sinkhole, but man! What tickled me, there was this news station that confidently says Sinkhole had been directly caused by Tornado! Hmmm... Maybe they should've watched Gaping Abyss first. However, Gaping Abyss is not the first one, at least there is already a movie with similar premise titled On Hostile Ground (2000) which you can easily catch on TV now. What's interesting how the writer could put some meaningful emotion in the mining scene which eventually will make you care of what happen to the characters and although the CGI is plain awfully fake but the action sequences are quite good actually! So, if this come up on your TV, disaster movie fans would find this entertaining, although I advise you to watch the original German-Language version instead of the English-Dub one.