Putting the Terror in Subterranean

The Descent, As Above So Below, The Tunnel, and Ted's Caving Page. Plus, what's up with found footage and caves??

Jul 31, 2025

There are few places on earth more hostile to human life than beneath the surface of the earth. The only thing that comes to mind is, perhaps, deep water, though with inventions like submarines and diving equipment humans have mostly conquered that arena.1

Caves, though? There’s barely even space for your body to exist. To enter that kingdom down below you literally must prostrate yourself into uncomfortable and dangerous positions. There’s the darkness, the silence, the potential for getting disoriented, lost, or stuck.

And then, of course, there is the possibility of something down in the cave with you. You can’t see it–but it sees you.

Yes, caves, mines, subways–all of these are perfect fodder for the horror genre. In fact, I’m currently working on a book about a spooky cave where things aren’t always what they seem.

(It’s far from being done, so unfortunately I don’t have any excerpts, cover reveals, or preorder links for you. If you’re interested, follow me on Amazon, I guess? Or subscribe here on Substack.)

I’ve been itching to rewatch As Above So Below recently, so when I read this post from the Phantom Bound substack, which covers that movie AND The Descent, and this one from Haunts you later covering the latter, I decided I needed to take time to watch both. And why not throw the GOAT Creepypasta Ted’s Caving Page into the mix as well? And, heck, I saw The Tunnel last year. Let’s get that in here, too. It’s a Cave-stravaganza here on H. is for Horror.

So put on your hard hat and don’t forget to check your batteries, because something awaits you below the ground, and it’s HANGRY.

The Descent (2005)

This is in the running for greatest horror poster of all time.

I was so hyped to watch this. I’ve been hearing about it for years. The reason it took me so long to actually watch it is that I thought I’d seen it before. I don’t know exactly what movie I got it mixed up with, but whatever it was wasn’t good, y’all. I don’t remember the specifics, only the subpar quality.

This movie follows Sarah, who goes on a caving adventure with her all-girl group of friends one year after her husband and daughter are killed in a tragic car crash. But things turn out to be more than they appear when an accident occurs that traps them inside the cave.

Like I said, I was super hyped to watch this. Lately I will either run on the treadmill or knit while I watch movies, but I did this one properly, at night with all the lights off and shit. I even watched the whole thing in one sitting.

There’s a lot to love about this movie. It’s an all-female cast (except for the main chick’s husband, but he dies within the first five minutes), but not in an in-your-face GIRL POWER type way. The fact that it’s all women is never even commented on diegetically. Each of these women is a fully fleshed-out character.

I do have to come clean and say that while I enjoyed this movie, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to. While that may be partially due to going in with high expectations, I think it ultimately comes down to personal taste. I’m just not a fan of creature features, which this movie becomes in the second half. The first half is more of a psychological survival movie, and I found that part of the film more effective–especially one scene where someone gets stuck. IYKYK.

Despite actually devoting my entire attention to this movie, I also had a hard time telling the characters apart once they were in their climbing gear, so I think I lost some of the emotional impact. I think this is a “me” problem. I just have a hard time telling characters apart during a first watch. (The first time I watched Sinners in the theater I thought vamp Hailey Steinfeld was coming on to her love interest’s brother rather than her love interest. I think it made that particular scene much more intense, FWIW) I’ve been listening to a couple podcasts about this movie where they praise how easy it is to tell the characters apart–I guess at one point they use different colors of (diegetic) light to differentiate them. I might have to rewatch so I can clock that, because that sounds awesome.

I enjoyed Sarah’s larger emotional arc. I also liked Juno, who was treated with so much nuance, considering she’s an antagonist.2

So it’s 4/5 stars for me on this one. That might go up on a rewatch, because I definitely plan on seeing The Descent again!

The Tunnel (2011)

Full disclosure, I watched this movie about a year ago, and only partially rewatched it at the time of publishing this. But as I was putting together my notes for this post I kept thinking, I SWEAR TO GOD I’ve seen another subterranean horror movie, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the title.

The Tunnel is about a film crew that breaks into an abandoned rail system under Sydney (yes, this is an Australian film) when a government project to recycle water trapped there is suddenly cancelled without public explanation. Of course the tunnels turn out to contain more than just water.

This movie has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s crazy.

Like the next movie on this list, As Above, So Below, The Tunnel is a found-footage style movie. A documentary, to be exact.

Let’s zoom out from The Tunnel there to point out that there must be some psychological connection between found footage and subterranean horror, because even The Descent had “found footage” aspects to it in that one of the characters was filming with a handheld video camera. The movie utilized camera’s POV and night vision features to deliver scares. Even Ted’s Caving Page, today’s bonus Creepypasta, is found fiction, though it’s delivered via an early-2000’s era website.

And I think this is the connection: if you’re doing a movie about caves, you really want the viewer to feel the claustrophobia. And there’s no better way than getting them all up in there via some close-quarters shaky cam.

Okay, back to The Tunnel. I’m only halfway through my rewatch of this movie. It’s a slow burn–much of the first half was setup delivered via interviews and security cameras–but I’m starting to remember what was so great about this movie. The location is probably my favorite part of the movie. There are tight spaces, sure, but there are also vast, cathedral-like spots that are hard to believe are underground.

Plus, John Silver from Black Sails is in it. Can’t go wrong there.

As Above, So Below (2014)

Listen, we owe As Above, So Below an apology. This thing has got 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s only four percentage points higher than the literal worst movie ever made, The 15:17 To Paris.

This is one of my favorite horror movies, perhaps THE favorite. Not because I think it’s a perfect movie, or objectively the best in any way, but because it scratches an itch for me. It gets a lot of hate for some reason, but it also gets a lot of love. It’s mentioned constantly on the Horror Movies subreddit. How can anything so topical have such a low rating??

Filmed in found footage documentary style, As Above, So Below follows adventurer Scarlet as she tries to fulfill her late father’s life work of finding the philosopher’s stone, a fabled object that can transform any metal into gold and grant eternal life. Her quest brings her and her friends into the depths of the Paris Catacombs, which may just take them someplace they never thought they would find themselves…

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling - 9780590353403 ... — yes, THAT philosopher’s stone.

It’s hell, okay? This movie literally follows the structure of Dante’s Inferno, where the narrator goes on a literal journey through the nine circles of hell. I think one of the reasons this movie appeals so much to me personally is that it’s not just horror–it’s adventure and fantasy, too. It’s The Descent meets The Mummy3 meets National Treasure.

I’ve heard people claim As Above, So Below is just a ripoff of The Descent, and, sure. Watching these two movies so close together there are a few similarities. However, I think they are less direct rip-offs and more just what you expect in a subterranean horror movie. Like, if you’re shooting a horror movie that takes place in tiny tunnels, someone is going to get stuck. I don’t even think that’s a spoiler at this point. It’s just what you’re in for.

Because this movie is pretty unique, in my opinion. The depiction of what hell is is one of my favorite aspects of the movie. It’s less fire and brimstone and more cerebral, though as they move deeper into the depths the horrors become more literal.

This movie may not be your favorite, but it’s definitely worth your time. It’s a 5/5 for me.

Ted’s Caving Page

P.s.--we’ve covered Ted’s Caving Page on the Dukes of Horror Podcast!

If you’ve only ever experienced the “Who Was Phone?!” era of creepypasta, do I have a treat for you. Creepypastas are now ubiquitous across the internet. There are whole forums for them, places made just for posting them.

But there was a time where these accounts of supposedly real-life horror popped up independent of each other, ready to scare the pants off of anyone who was brave enough to find them.

Ted’s Caving Page (also known as “Ted the Caver”) is an old Angelfire website built by our narrator, Ted, to detail a string of otherworldly experiences he had while exploring a new portion of a cave system. Posted and reposted to online text-based forums, it is cited by many as being the first Creepypasta. It established many of the tropes of the genre.

One of the striking things about Ted’s Caving Page is its format. Anyone who remembers the internet of the late 90’s and early aughts will know that it was clunky, less stream-lined. All of this works in the story’s favor.

When you first visit Ted’s Caving Page, you are met with Salmon-colored text on a black background reading, “Welcome to the page of Ted.” Below this is the date–5/19/01-and below that is a murky picture of a cave formation with the direction to click here. This is the front page of Ted’s Caving Page.

Click that link and you’re brought to a page where Ted introduces himself and his page, saying he decided to make it at the request of multiple friends in the caving community asked him to share his experiences. He says that, under no circumstances will he share the location of the cave (this will become a staple Creepypasta trope). Below this is a link titled “The Discovery,” and below that a link back to the front page.

This is the format for the rest of the pasta–a link to the next page, and a link to the previous page. There’s no index of pages, no way to tell how close to the end of the story we are–much like there’s no way for Ted to tell how much further there is to explore in the cave. Rather than have pictures included in line, the few images are linked to, a common practice at the time to cut down load times for dial-up internet. Waiting for the pictures to load builds tension, each amounting to the equivalent of a jump scare.

The best thing about Ted’s Caving Page is that it feels real. If a caving expert had a spooky experience in the early aughts and chose to start a blog about it, this is exactly what it would look like. As the Creepypasta became a more established subgenre of horror, writers veered into unreality, favoring getting every detail of their stories across as well as striking, disturbing imagery. Often, they flip to the third person, delivering descriptions and information that the narrator either had no way of knowing, or that they shouldn’t be able to convey to the reader.

And that’s one of the best things about this story. The last entry is Ted deciding to go back into the cave to figure out once and for all what’s going on, promising to come and update us one final time on what he’s found out.

But that final post never appears. We never hear from Ted again, just like it would be if he succumbed to whatever was in the cave. It’s restraint that was lost on future generations of Creepypasta authors.

That’s all I’ve got for ya today! Did I miss any subterranean horror movies or books? If you’ve seen any of the movies above, what did you think? Let me know in the comments!

H. H. Duke is a writer, author, and podcaster. Most importantly, she loves horror! Currently, she’s working on a book about a weird cave. OoooOOoo! For scary book recommendations, horror movie reviews, and other spooky things, subscribe to H. is for Horror now - If you dare!