Guardians of the Tomb – aka 7 Guardians of the Tomb and Nest 3D – is a 2017 Australian/Chinese action-horror film directed by Kimble Rendall (Cut; Bait 3D) from a screenplay co-written with Paul Staheli. It is also known as Nest 3D and the Search For the Venom of Eternity.
The movie stars Kellan Lutz, Li Bingbing (Resident Evil: Retribution), Kelsey Grammer, Stef Dawson, Ryan Johnson, Shane Jacobson. Tim Draxl, Yasmin Kassim. Jason Chong.
Plot:
While making the discovery of the century, a team of scientists lose a colleague in an ancient labyrinth.
The group must battle their way through a swarm of deadly, man-eating funnel web spiders and discover the secret behind the arachnids’ power and intelligence – before it’s too late…
Reviews:
” …its underground tomb is a reasonably amusing (if already seen a thousand times) set, and the CGI spiders are well-rendered and consistently creepy. The spider attacks, some quite original (as when the spiders are in the water, literally in bubbles), are solidly entertaining, though their backstory as linked to an emperor who wanted eternity, is muddled and nonsensical.” Asian Film Strike
“It’s hard to remain serious with this type of entertainment, but Rendall is trying to emulate an old fashioned adventure, keeping away from goofy SyFy dreck. For that alone, 7 Guardians of the Tomb deserves some praise, and perhaps the effort will find a more receptive audience with creature feature fanatics looking for an arachnid nightmare. It’s not a strong picture, but the production is generally good…” Blu-ray.com
” …it does go overboard. One particular sequence repeats the same explosion effect at least three times. At least this is not a worry for the conventional effects, where the set design looks appropriately grimy and spooky; there are plenty of cobwebs, corpses and grisly makeup jobs for the eye to see.” Cryptic Rock
“Nothing is done in order to create a distinctive mood, sense of character, anything that would make it identifiable in a crowd of 100 other derivative titles that use this exact same overdone formula. All of the diverse cast members are clearly bored, given absolutely zero help by the script…” Film Inquiry:
“The tomb trappings are decent and the spider effects are good enough to freak out an arachnophobe. The backstory really makes no sense whatsoever and the rest of the story isn’t exactly rigorously logical either. It’s not Raiders of the Lost Ark (neither was the last Indiana Jones movie, for that matter), but it is enjoyable to see Li take the lead and Grammer do his villainous thing.” J.B. Spins
” …like one of the Scorpion King sequels in its horrid execution, atrocious acting, and stale screenplay with a story that is overrun with cliches and unoriginality. To make matters worse, the ending is nothing more than sequel bait.” Reel Rundown
“People with arachnophobia are advised to avoid 7 Guardians of the Tomb because the spiders are creepy. Everyone else is advised to avoid it because, outside of the insects, nothing else is either creepy or compelling. For a better version of pretty much the same story, invest the time in watching Aliens.” Reel Views
“It’s great to see Li top listed, most western audiences might know from Transformers: Age of Extinction and Resident Evil: Retribution. She’s a terrific lead and a great action star who, along with Grammer’s inspired maniac performance, make this far better than it should be. However, even at 90 minutes, it gets threadbare…” That Moment In
Release:
In the US, Gravitas Ventures released the film theatrically and on VOD and Digital on February 23rd 2018.
Related: Arachnophobia: Spiders on the Screen – article
