Welcome to Hell.
To cover the basics as best one can, this is a movie about an "elite" team of soldiers (..though, many of them make some really stupid mistakes and decisions that had me questioning how elite they really are..) ordered to carry an archeologist into an underground installation housing a possessed group of scientists and scholars who volunteered for a mission to study and contain an angel of wrath in war with God, forced into an "ice block" (referred to as "the hand of God"), that seems to successfully dominate the will of those that come in contact with it. Got all that?
Cuba Gooding, Jr. is a "soldier of fortune", his team consists of Taryn Manning (a fragile, emotional wreck whose mental state is obvious the moment you see her), Franky G (as a hot-blooded Latino stud ready to machine gun anything that gets in his way), Zack Ward (the wise-cracking goof off who provides some humor early; he's the guy you see in these movies ogling a Playboy while forced into job of guarding a dead body and watching security monitors), Jason London, Stephanie Jacobsen (London's gal; her abortion to remain on the team is exploited by the evil and she falls for its use of a little girl over and over), and Brandon Fobbs (as the computer and techno-wiz Click, he's often mocked by others because of his rookie status, and is a fraidy-cat, but he's a trooper often drenched in blood and guts; when one of those possessed is blasted by machine guns often Click gets the aftermath splashed all over him). Valerie Cruz (who I thought was very good) is the archeologist with a certain agenda (and it is one of those "mankind's very existence is at stake" kind of missions of vital importance) that is concealed from the team, although you can sense they know she's hiding something.
This cast is a B-movie horror fan's wet dream. Bill Moseley has another one of those really repulsive-looking grotesqueries; he can add this to his rogue's gallery of human monsters. In this film, he's got white strands of hair, eyes absent color, and a body cut up in savage fashion (his chest is the shape of a cross). His possessed professor is the first to provide proof that the angel of wrath (called a niphilim) is a real evil, and it takes a hell of a lot to put him down. When Cuba puts a crater-sized (out the back of his head, mind you) hole in his skull, Moseley still gets up!
Ron Perlman is a man of God who went into the installation with the sole purpose of making sure the niphilim never left its prison, but he's instead possessed by it. Cruz is his daughter and determines to find him. Ray Winstone (I told you this cast is loaded) is the former captain of Cuba's team and flashback memories (framed as little pieces ultimately leading to a final puzzle answering what happened to him while on a mission in the field). This will also be exploited by the niphilim later in the film. Rounding out the cast is Henry Rollins as a priest who is a bit unglued, his sanity stretched thin by what he has experienced before Cuba and company go to his position. Rollins also has secrets and Cuba's tolerance of his non-stop motor-mouthed rhetoric about the evil is put to the test.
This film's plot is shit. I'm not about to start singing praises to this movie regarding some sort of compelling story. It has a lot of weird, creepy visuals going for it, though. I love movies that start with a group finding a place they're searching (whether or not it is an oil rig, outpost, bunker, underground installation, whatever), the result of a brutal attack, bodies found in disarray or under some sort of terror that needs explanation. The make-up effects are a plus for this film, as you find a burned body (the face is fried) who had purposely grabbed hold to pulled breakers electrocuting himself, nasty sores all over the undead corpses of those possessed in the first party that faced the niphilim, and the gore that comes from how the evil kills off Cuba's team.
Taryn Manning is the first to go due to losing her sister because of a tumor surgery that didn't get all of the cancer. Her faith is weak and that is her downfall. Her swapping spit with Jacobsen is rather nice until there's licking and suckling of those niphilim sores. Seeing Jacobsen's skeletal spine (carved open by Manning meticulously with a surgical knife!) and London's getting his throat ripped out warrant certain viewing from those who love to see ridiculous ultraviolence. Cuba is all steel and ice-water; getting his men out of this predicament and surviving such a situation is his focus and few disturbances that occur deter his resolve. I'm done.
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