The Devil Below

''The Devil Below'' is a 2021 American horror film directed by Bradley Parker. The film stars Alicia Sanz, Adan Canto, Zach Avery, Chinaza Uche, Jonathan Sadowski, Jesse LaTourette and Will Patton.

Plot

A mining crew is leaving the Shookum Hills Coal Mine. A man named Schuttmann and his son Eric are talking when an unknown creature attacks Eric. Schuttmann attempts to save Eric, but the creature stabs him in the throat, paralyzing him. A bloodied Eric is taken away screaming.

Years later, a team of scientists—Darren, Shawn, Terry, and Jaime—led by an adventurer named Arianne, are search for Shookum Hills and its coal mines. Since the 1970s, the town was no longer placed on maps, its population seemingly vanished. It's believed that the disappearance is related to an underground coal fire that resulted in sinkholes opening up around the town. Darren, the team leader, believes that the fires were started by a rare mineral.

The group stops at a store where Arianne buys supplies and asks for directions to Shookum Hills. The proprietor claims that he has never heard of Shookum Hills and tells her to go back the way she came. As the team leaves the store, the proprietor warns someone that there is a problem. A car begins following them. Arianne successfully eludes the pursuers, and arrives at a dirt road blockaded by an electrical fence. They climb over an electric fence and discover the abandoned Shookum Hills Mine.

Though delighted by their find, they are puzzled to discover a sinkhole covered by an improvised electrified fence. They dismantles the barrier, and as they lower sensors into the sinkhole, Terry is dragged in. Arianne and Jaime descend to try and find Terry, but cannot locate him. An angry local named Dale confronts Darren and Shawn, demanding to know why they opened the sinkhole cover. As Dale cuts the rope the team used to lower themselves down, Shawn knocks him unconscious.

Once Arianne returns, she tells them that there is “something else” in the tunnels. The group takes Dales truck and flee only to hit a pot hole and continue on foot into the woods, losing Shawn in the process to one of the creatures chasing them. Dale is also killed, after reporting that the sinkhole has been breached. Darren, Arianne, and Jaime are rescued by a group of locals led by Schuttman, who used to own the mines. He reveals that the mines are home to monsters that are the true reason the town disappeared. The surviving townsfolk have remained behind to keep the creatures contained.

Arianne volunteers to go back with two locals, Ellroy and Shelby, to show them the sinkhole they opened. Darren and Jaime choose to accompany her. The creatures ambush them, and Ellroy sacrifices himself to draw them off. The rest of the group escapes into the tunnels. Shelby also chooses to distract the creatures, telling Arianne and the two men to flee. Jaime attempts to kill some of the creatures with a grenade, only for one of them to attack him and knock the grenade out of his hand. He is killed when it detonates.

Exhausted and distraught, Darren tells Arianne that this expedition was not to map out the geographical area as he had led her to believe. He is being paid by a coal mining company that wants the rare mineral in the caves. He refuses to go on and Arianne leaves, promising to bring help back. She reaches the surface, but is paralyzed and captured by one of the creatures. She awakens briefly to see that she is on a raft being steered by one of the creatures, along with Shelby's corpse. When they reach the creatures' lair, she is reunited with the captured Darren and Shawn. Shawn notes that the creatures are a species which breeds and colonizes like ants or bees. He is then fed to the queen creature, which is a bloated, immobile hulk. The creatures attempt to feed Arianne to the queen, but she recovers from the venom and uses a grenade Darren gave her to kill the queen.

She and Darren escape and begin to climb up a rope at the entrance, but one of the creatures follows them and attacks Darren. Arianne gives him a knife to fight back, but the creature manages to poison him. He chooses to cut the rope instead, saving Arianne at the cost of his own life. The locals arrive, and one of them is about to cut the rope and doom Arianne, only for Schuttman to stop him and help her escape. The locals use a flamethrower and rifles to drive the creatures back into the tunnels. Afterwards Schuttmann is driving Arianne back to the outside of the fence. He tells her about the death of his son and asks her to help them keep the creatures from escaping. While she's unsure that they can overcome the monsters, she reluctantly agrees to help.

Cast

* Alicia Sanz as Arianne
* Adan Canto as Darren
* Will Patton

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