Movie Review: The Pyramid (2014)

The movie stars Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare, James Buckley, Christa Nicola and Philip Shelley.

I ended up adding this movie to our Netflix DVD queue because the description made it sound interesting. However, despite this, I did have some doubts about it when my wife and I ended up watching it last night. As it turns out, it was actually a pretty good film.

The setting, inside the previously unknown pyramid, was a fantastic choice. It was cramped (given you the feeling of claustrophobia). They faced a variety of dangers ranging from unstable floors to traps and toxins in the air. Plus, they had no idea how to find their way out of the underground pyramid and there's only one person who knows they are inside.

This, alone, would have made the movie worth watching. The fact they also were being hunted by a group of slightly-mutated, feral cats and a larger, unknown, creature only made the film even creepier, especially when they would get attacked out of nowhere or were crawling in a tight passageway that gave them limited escape options.

And, unlike plenty of other movies I've seen in this genre, it wasn't always easy to figure out who was going to die next or when. Not to mention, the fact they were all also dying from the toxins in the air meant they couldn't simply just find a place to hide. They had to wander around the pyramid in search of a way out, increasing their chances of getting killed either by the creatures that were hunting them or by stumbling into a trap or another hazard.

I also liked the fact there was a sense of mystery about what the pyramid was and who was buried in it. While I did, admittedly, have some suspicions from some subtle clues they gave early on and those suspicions proved to be correct, the fact the film does keep you in the dark for the majority of the movie does make things more interesting than it might have been had we known, in advance, what the pyramid was.

This isn't a movie with a bunch of well-known actors in it. However, it is a thriller that, partly because of the location, manages to be much more suspenseful and entertaining than I thought it would. I do recommend taking the time to watch this film if you have an opportunity to.

My Grade: B