The Story:
An elite group of soldiers lead by Mack (Cuba Gooding Jr.) are given orders to extract a scientist (Ron Perlman) who is working at an archeological dig in the middle east. During a search for weapons of mass destruction, the government discovered something strange under the sand that has been sitting dormant, waiting to be released for centuries. Now a secret sect (led by Priest/Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins) has been drawn to the area to fullfill their foretold destinies.
Characters:
Cuba Gooding Jr. feels out of place starring in a B-movie like The Devil’s Tomb. It’s quite obvious he’s not bringing his best to the table, but it wasn’t noticeable enough to cheapen the experience any further.
Zack Ward (Postal) was just as convincing as ever playing ‘Nickel’ the skeezy data tech. At one moment Demons force Nickel into a fantasy situation with a woman out of the porno magazine he’s been gawking at. When the pin-up appears in the backround, she is wearing a bright white, for lack of a better term, crotch-guard. With this slip, the editor manages to make that particular scene even less erotic than the puss sucking lesbian romp we get the joy of witnessing shortly after.
Bill Mosely plays the first infected we see, but the cheap voice distortion applied hampers his trade mark shrill, maniacal tone. Ron Perlman makes an effort as the supreme evil, displaying some vicious hand to hand combat skills.
Effects/Gore:
Unfortunately this was one of those movies where if you’ve seen one creature, you’ve seen them all. The gore was done extremely well, maybe better than the movie deserved.
Final Headcount:
Familiar faces and great gore kept me satisfied enough to make it to the credits without feeling as though I had completely wasted an hour and a half of my life. Overall the movie feels like a stereotypical Demon (or Angel, or Alien apparently?) tale you’ve probably seen before with some cliche soldiers thrown in for fodder.
