Film Threat by Andy Howell

It will stick with you long after you leave the theater. It is as moving as it is possible for a film to be.

The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg

Entering theaters at a timely moment, The Cave is a frightening immersion in life under siege in Syria that, as difficult as it often is to watch, can’t come close to replicating how harrowing it must have been to film.

Variety by Tomris Laffly

This is both an immensely humanist film, and a tough, heartbreaking watch.

The Hollywood Reporter by Caryn James

Fayyad and his cinematographers and editors wield the cameras and shape the scenes in the documentary so beautifully that The Cave is both intensely real and a carefully wrought work of cinema. A kind of counterpart to Last Men, the new film is perhaps more wrenching and even more ambitious in its visuals.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

It’s a frantic, unnerving window into Syria’s collapse, and a nerve-wracking thriller that alternates between acts of courage and utter despair; through that paradox, it captures the struggles on the ground in intimate detail.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

The Cave reminds us of the horrors of a situation we have perhaps become numb to and shows us the unforgettable people who don’t have that luxury.

TheWrap by Steve Pond

Fayyad’s cameras roam freely through the hospital and paint an intimate picture of the facility in which many of the patients are indeed children who’ve grown up under the shadow of warplanes. The footage of injured children and malnourished babies is wrenching and hard to watch, to the point where you wonder how Dr. Amani and her colleagues can fail to succumb to hopelessness and rage.

Slant Magazine by Pat Brown

Its depiction of the perpetual terror of living in a war zone will stick with viewers long after The Cave’s doctors have left Ghouta.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

The grace notes don’t obscure the ugly situation we’re shown here. It’s not compact, perfectly organized film, but The Cave is an honest fly-on-the-wall/cinema verite portrait of a place and a couple of the people working in it.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

It's increasingly hard to work up a fright on the screen these days, but even if The Cave doesn't exactly terrify, it's fun and looks great.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Though The Cave really, really tries to be scary from as many directions as possible, it fails to hold much in reserve and never manages to build suspense.

L.A. Weekly by Tim Grierson

Despite the striking underwater photography and production values, much of this feels like Alien: Stalagmite Edition. But if it isn't original, The Cave does demonstrate that you can always elevate threadbare material by keeping your ambitions modest.

Village Voice by R. Emmet Sweeney

Spare and single-minded, The Cave is an insistently entertaining piece of pulp.

The A.V. Club by Vikram Murthi

It’s a monotonous descent into agony that coasts on the impossibility of anyone walking away unaffected by the imagery.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Chris Hewitt

It's not original, but unlike some of this summer's movies (such as The Island and Stealth), The Cave knows its place. Its job is to deliver a few jolty thrills and a couple of laughs and wrap things up before it starts to get too dumb.

Entertainment Weekly by Scott Brown

Sci-fi horror aficionados, however, might want to look elsewhere for their scares, as they're unlikely to find any here. Fright-wise, The Cave is a dry hole.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

"Alien" redux.

Variety by Robert Koehler

Refreshing strokes of science-fact in the early sections give way to action strictly from the Ridley Scott-James Cameron playbook, but without a powerful helmer behind the camera or a memorable cast in front.

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

It's an undistinguished effort in which none of the actors distinguish themselves.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

Involves a team of divers exploring a vast cave system, an appropriate setting given the hollowness of the story and acting.