Review of The Descent
Score: 87
Sub-Section: Horror
Company: Lions Gate
Date: Jul 27, 2006
The Descent, by Dog Soldiers writer/director Neil Marshall is making big waves as the next big thing in horror. It is being compared to horror classics such as Alien and The Shining. Though not nearly the caliber of those movies, The Descent is possibly the best wide-release horror movie to hit American Theaters in many years. Be prepared to jump throughout this movie. I know I did.
At the beginning we are introduced to six young adult women who have a ritual of going on adventures together, such as rock climbing and white water rafting. After a horrible accident that emotionally scars them, we are fast forwarded to the following year, where they are preparing their next adventure. They get a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains and are planning to explore caves. They have a cave for beginners picked out, but the most adventurous of the group, Juno (Natalie Mendoza), decides that it would be more exciting to explore an unexplored cave system. Too bad she doesn't bother to tell her friends.
As the six women go further and further down into the caverns, they find out that they are not alone. They face many questions about themselves and what they will do to survive. Neil Marshall has said that he was strongly influenced by three movies: Alien, The Shining, and Deliverance. All three influences can be easily identified throughout the movie. The atmosphere is perfect for some terrific scares. I jump pretty easily and even the few scenes that were obviously leading up to a scare startled me.
The entire time the girls are in the cave leading up to their eventual discovery of the "others" living there was done perfectly. I felt the claustrophobia of being trapped in the small tunnels of the cavern. I had a general sense of nervousness throughout this first half of the movie. I can't think of another movie where that gave me such as prolonged feeling of disquiet. Once the monsters fully appear, however, the movie becomes a standard fighting/gory horror movie and loses some of the scariness.
Unfortunately, it is hard to stay away from tired horror clichés and The Descent descends into a couple. It's easy to determine the pecking order of the girls and who is the most likely to die at which times. There are a few cheesy parts, but thankfully not as many as in your average horror movie. The suspense and tension that the director is able to build up with the confined spaces and sublime musical score more that makes up for the cheese.
Without giving too much away, the title is a play on the descent into madness that happens when very traumatic things happen, and the repercussions. The ending leaves a bit to be desired, but wait for the DVD and you will be able to see the original ending as it was shown in England. The original ending made much more sense and was where the story was naturally going.
Overall, The Descent mostly lives up to the hype and delivers many genuine scares. The actors give great terrified performances and the monsters are significantly creepy, though we don't get to find out much about their origin. Shauna Macdonald is especially wonderful as the main heroine, Sarah. The tone of the movie was perfect and Neil Marshall looks to be the next big name in horror.
Other related links:
The Descent Trailer at Apple.com
The Descent at IMDB.com
To visit the official website at TheDescentFilm.com.