Two hours in, you realize the cute art style was the trap. The Abyss doesn't threaten you with monsters so much as with rules: go up and the Curse takes your blood, your senses, your humanity, and Riko learns that lesson the hard way while chasing a white whistle that belonged to Lyza the Annihilator. Reg's Incinerator arm looks like a cheat code until you see how little it buys you against what lives down there. Then Ozen the Immovable shows up at the Seeker Camp and calmly dismantles a twelve year old's entire reason for existing, and the film doesn't blink. Kevin Penkin's score does half the emotional damage on its own, that choral swell over a descent that feels like falling out of the world. Yes, three hours got squeezed into two and some quiet character beats got clipped. It still lands harder than most originals.

Riko dreams of following her mother into the Abyss, a lethal and mysterious pit that has claimed countless explorers, and she trains hard to become a Cave Raider. Then word comes that her mother has died down there, yet a strange note hints that she may still be alive. Determined to learn the truth, Riko sets out on a descent alongside Reg, a humanoid robot boy. The film compiles the first eight episodes of the 2017 television series, adding new scenes for its opening. It carries the pair down to the second layer, where they encounter Ozen, a White Whistle who shares what she knows about Riko's mother. The film blends adventure, fantasy, mystery and horror.