Welcome to Movie Shortens. Follow us today to a 2021 American horror film called: The Devil Below.
Before we start, be aware: there are spoilers!
The movie begins with a scene of a mining area belonging to Shookum Hills Coal Mine.
We are introduced to Paul, the co-founder of the company, who is talking with his son, Derek,
about a mine worker in the company as they are leaving. Just in a moment, Derek is abruptly
being dragged by something unseen below. He rushes in to save his son. However, Paul is
stabbed in the shoulder and becomes paralyzed. Poor Derek being dragged away and screaming in
vain are Paul’s last memories to be seen. Years later, Arianne, an experienced adventurer,
is hired to lead a group of scientists including Darren - the leader, Shawn,
Terry and Jaime, to search for coal mines and the areas of Shookum Hills.
As in need of suppliers, they stop by a store in a small town on the way. Arianne starts asking
the proprietor about the location of Shookum Hills, where it used to be around until it
was burned down to the ground and seems to be wiped off from the earth’s surface. However,
the proprietor says that he has never heard of it. As Arianne keeps asking him, he tells them to stop
searching and go back to where they came from. When Arianne goes outside, a local man in
the store immediately informs a shadowy character that they’ve got a problem.
As Arianne’s group leave and continue to search for the town, another car follows
them, attempting to scare them away. Just then, the car unexpectedly stops halfway,
aiming to make the team pass one specific point in the road. As an experienced adventurer,
Arianne quickly recognizes that they are trying to hide the way heading to Shookum Hills. Eventually,
the team manages to reach the destination. The way to Shookum Hills is a narrow dirt road
blocked by an electrified fence. The team has to get out of the car and sneak in by
climbing on a tree nearby. After entering the area, they start inspecting and taking samples.
When the night comes, the team camp near the riverside and start giving theories
explaining the disappearance of Shookum Hills. While Darren believes that it is basically an
environmental disaster, Shawn is open to all possibilities. He thinks this place is a Well to
Hell drilled by the government, just like the hell hole in Siberia that was dug by the Russians.
In the meantime, a group of locals find out the electric wire has been torn and pulled out.
They start inspecting the scene but one of them is killed by a mysterious creature.
At this point, while two locals are fixing the electric fence, Paul shows up and says he wants
the group of scientists to leave the area. At the camp of the scientists, Darren asks
Arianne to join them at the mining area. Here, Darren starts to introduce his team to Arianne,
Terry and Shawn are experts in geology just like him while Jaime is a safeguard. He also
adds that the purpose of this trip is to look for a rare mineral, anthracite, and find out
about the disaster that happened in Shookum Hills to prevent something similar in the future.
The very next day, the team walks into the woods to begin their search. When they are
about to take some samples, the escort car from yesterday appears and wanders around. The team
has to hide beside a rock for a moment. Eventually, they make it to Shookum Hills and
wander around the town. After entering a random house, they suspect that the gas from the sinkhole
is the reason behind the disappearance of a thousand inhabitants. Arianne opens the
door of the house, revealing the whole abandoned mining area behind it. The team is so happy as
they finally reach the place they wanted to go. Now, they find a big hole on the ground covered
with electrified grates, they break a part of it and quickly establish equipment checking for
anthracite. Shawn lowers the equipment into the hole as Terry is collecting data from it.
After a while, the team of scientists are very happy after learning that they have found pure
anthracite in the hole. However, Terry finds out something abnormal when trying to listen
to the sound sent from the scanner. He unintentionally steps on the rope and is
suddenly dragged into the hole by a mysterious force, leaving the whole team in panic.
Seeing that, Arianne and Jaime immediately get to the bottom of the hole to find Terry.
Just a few moments later, Dale, a local, arrives with a shotgun and a knife. He gets angry after
learning that the grate has been lifted. No matter how desperate Darren is for help, Dale
is still determined to cut the rope. Shawn hits him unconscious to save Arianne and Jaime.
Meanwhile, down the hole, Jaime is determined to look for Terry but Arianne convinces him to
go back as the gas level here is sky high. The gas will kill them before they could find Terry.
Eventually, Arianne and Jaime make it to the ground. The remaining members
of the team decide to take Dale’s car and go back to call for help.
On the way escaping from the scene, Darren drives the car and hits something as the whole experience
left him traumatized. The team has no choice but get out of the car to make it out of the woods
before it gets dark. Meanwhile, Dale wakes up near the grate, but right after he could inform
the locals, he is killed by the creature. The night has come. While the group of scientists
led by Arianne are going through the woods, they hear something unusual.
As Arianne uses the night vision glasses to look around, the group encounters a creature ambush.
They frantically run off but unfortunately, Shawn is attacked and dragged away.
At this point, Shelby, a local woman, drives a truck approaching and saves them.
Now, Arianne, Darren and Jaime are the only three people in the team who remain. After Shelby takes
them to a safe house, they face the anger from the locals for letting the creatures out. Here,
the group also meets Paul, who gave up being the co-founder of the mining company. Now, what he
does is to contain the creatures to protect the people. Darren says the group of scientists are
here on purely academic purpose and explains their motive for coming to Shookum Hills. Arianne starts
questioning Paul about what happened with the town. He answers with a brooding tone,
in his belief, this place is like a Purgatory where people go to confront their sins.
In the meantime, Shelby gets a call from another local saying that there are a lot of creatures
outside. As the locals have to find the breach and seal it, Arianne volunteers to show them the way.
Darren and Jaime also follow to find Shawn and Terry as soon as possible.
After getting out of the house, they confront many more creatures coming, so they have to
run uphill to the safe house. Ellroy, an old local man, sacrifices himself to buy
other’s time getting away from the creatures. Finally, the group makes it to the safe house and
stays there for a while. They have to keep quiet as the creatures are attracted to noises. However,
there is one creature lurking around the house and starting to call for the other creatures.
After one creature enters the house, they distract it and manage to escape the house
through a tunnel underground. On the way, Shelby splits off and decides to distract the monster
while Arianne, Daren and Jaime manage to go to the end of the tunnel,
break the fence to escape. However, as some of the creatures are about to reach them,
Jaime stops and attempts to kill the creatures with a grenade. However, one of them attacks him
and knocks the grenade out of his hand. The grenade explodes, killing him.
While Arianne and Darren keep moving forward through the tunnel, Darren stops for a while
as he is exhausted and traumatized. He regrets leading his team to come here. Then, he confesses
that he is actually backed by a mining company who wants him to search for anthracite and offers
him a lot of money. As Darren deeply regrets and feels bad about himself, Arianne encourages him
by telling her experience in the past. One time, she was hired to accompany a guy to the Himalayas,
but ended up killing the client to save her own life. Eventually, seeing Darren losing all hopes,
she goes away seeking help from the locals and promises to come back.
In the meantime, the locals led by Paul start to attract the monsters to the gate and shoot
them. When Arianne reaches the surface, she follows the shooting sounds seeking
for help. To her surprise, she is stabbed with paralytic venom and captured by a creature.
When Arianne wakes up and finds herself on a raft with Shelby’s body, she tries to find her
weapon but is then paralyzed by one creature who is pulling the raft. Arianne again wakes up and
reunites with Darren and Shawn. While Darren is trying to give her a grenade, Shawn says that
these creatures are alternative species, which breed and colonize like ants and bees. Before
Shawn could finish, two creatures grab him and bring him to feed the queen creature.
Later on, Arianne manages to grab the grenade before she is brought to be fed to the Queen.
At the time she is about to be swallowed, Darren turns on his alarm to distract the two other
creatures. In a nick of time, Arianne grabs the opportunity and gives the grenade to the queen,
killing it. She quickly grabs Darren, running away under the pursuit of the creatures.
In the end, they finally find a rope leading to the ground. While Arianne quickly climbs up,
Darren manages to put his gear on and follows her. However, a creature reaches them and climbs on the
rope too. Arianne gives Darren a knife to kill it but the creature again stabs him with the venom.
Finally, he decides to cut the rope, sacrificing himself to save Arianne.
While Arianne is reaching the surface, Paul shows up and saves Arianne right before the creatures
make it to the surface. The locals successfully contain the creatures by using flamethrowers
and rifles forcing them back to the hole. At this point, Arianne is the only survivor
in the team of five. Paul drives her to the gate where the team stopped in the beginning. Here, he
tells Arianne about the death of his son, Derek. What he could do now is to contain the monsters
in Shookum Hills instead of telling someone else as they wouldn’t believe him. Paul asks Arianne to
stay and help. After a while, she reluctantly decides to stay and fight with them.
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