''The Devil's Tomb'' is a 2009 American horror
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
, directed by
Jason Connery
Jason Joseph Connery (born 11 January 1963) is a British actor and director. He is the son of Sean Connery and Diane Cilento. On screen, he is best known for appearing in the third series of the ITV (TV channel), ITV drama series ''Robin of She ...
. It stars
Cuba Gooding Jr.,
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage, and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is known ...
and
Ron Perlman
Ronald N. Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire (film), Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose (film), The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in th ...
. The film was released
direct–to–video on May 26, 2009.
Plot
An elite group of
Special Ops
Special operations or special ops are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment." Special operations ma ...
soldiers, led by Captain "Mack", are sent by Dr. Elissa Cardell, a
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
operative, to rescue her father, scientist Lee Wesley, from an archaeological dig in the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
ern desert. The dig site was a suspected bunker for
WMDs. After entering the dig site, they encounter a priest who has strange boils all over his body. The team's
medic
A medic is a person trained to provide medical care, encompassing a wide range of individuals involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of health conditions. The term can refer to fully qualified medical practitioners, such as physic ...
, Sarah "Doc" Harrington, sedates him.
I.T. Specialist and former
hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...
"Click"" activates the site's elevator and notices a reference to the "
Gehenna
Gehenna ( ; ) or Gehinnom ( or ) is a Biblical toponym that has acquired various theological connotations, including as a place of divine punishment, in Jewish eschatology.
The place is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as part of the border ...
Project", which Cardell denies knowledge of. Mack orders communications specialist Nickels to stay on the surface and fix the broken communications gear and watch the priest, while the rest of the team descends on the elevator.
Underground, the team encounters Duncan, a scientist with boils like the priest's, who attacks the team by spitting acidic goo but is shot in the chest. While treating Duncan's wound, Doc has a hallucination of her sister, who blames Doc for letting her die. Duncan and Doc disappear and the team splits up to find them. Suffering hallucinations along the way, they find Duncan trying to open a sealed room, before attacking them and forcing the team to shoot him dead. The room is opened from the inside by Father Fulton, a priest that Cardell knows, who tells them that Doc has probably been taken to "the temple." While guiding them there, Fulton attacks Nickels, subdues him with the same acidic goo, and drags him away.
On the upper floor, Click finds Doc locked in a room; trying to get her out, he is attacked by a possessed scientist. Hammer appears and rescues Click, but more possessed humans start to appear, forcing Hammer to collapse the passage with explosives.
Below, the team learns from Fulton and Cardell that the temple is one of many tombs created by
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
to imprison the malevolent
Nephilim
The Nephilim (; ''Nəfīlīm'') are mysterious beings or humans in the Bible traditionally understood as being of great size and strength, or alternatively beings of great power and authority. The origins of the Nephilim are disputed. Some, ...
, but the site's inhabitant has the ability to possess the scientists and now the team.
Separated from the team, Yoshi follows a hallucination to a now-possessed Doc, who seduces and then possesses her. Doc then attacks Hammer, but Hicks fires his gun at Hammer to prevent him from shooting Doc, driving Hammer away. Hicks is then killed by Yoshi and Doc.
Hammer arrives back at the temple to tell Mack what he saw. Fulton reveals that the "Gehenna Project" is a self-destruct protocol for the site, and realizes that, with Click's unintentional help, Cardell has activated it, leaving the soldiers only fifteen minutes to evacuate. The door to the temple begins to close automatically. Fulton, Mack, Cardell, and Click make it out, but Hammer is trapped inside and sets off his grenades, killing himself and most of the possessed scientists attacking him. Fulton runs to the elevator alone but is killed by Doc.
Mack, Cardell, and Click arrive at the area where they encountered Duncan and finally find Wesley, who is possessed but without the tell-tale boils. Doc and the now-possessed Nickels attack the remaining members of the team. Click is killed, but Mack shoots an explosive barrel, killing Doc and disabling Wesley. Cardell stands over Wesley and sets his soul free by taking the Nephilim into herself, then refuses to go with Mack, because saving her father was her only goal.
Mack escapes from the dig site seconds before the explosion and is retrieved by helicopter. Throughout the mission he was tormented by hallucinations of his friend and mentor Blakeney, whom he was ordered to kill years ago. Now he puts those memories to rest and embraces his new purpose in life: as a new soldier in the ancient war between God and the Nephilim.
Cast
Production
Filming began in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
from November 2007 to January 2008, on a $10 million budget. The film received an R rating from the
MPAA
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, the mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. F ...
for strong violence/gore, language and brief nudity.
Home media
The DVD was released on May 26, 2009 in
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, distributed by
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film studio and Film distribution, distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action a ...
. The special features included on the disk are a directors commentary, outtakes, a making of documentary, deleted scenes and alternate scenes. As of August 14, 2009, it had sold 159,568 copies and grossed $3,189,764 in sales.
The DVD was released in Australia on December 9, 2009.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Tomb
2009 films
2009 direct-to-video films
2009 horror films
2009 independent films
American supernatural horror films
American independent films
Direct-to-video horror films
2000s supernatural horror films
Films directed by Jason Connery
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
Sony Pictures direct-to-video films
English-language horror films
English-language independent films