Descent (2007)

Featured Audience Ratings

• _kelly .

  
  Plot Spoilers Necessarily Throughout This Review <br/>I saw this movie by accident, thinking I had downloaded "The Descent", the horror movie about creatures attacking a group of cave climbers/campers who are all college age girls. So even through, the first rape… More
  Plot Spoilers Necessarily Throughout This Review <br/>I saw this movie by accident, thinking I had downloaded "The Descent", the horror movie about creatures attacking a group of cave climbers/campers who are all college age girls. So even through, the first rape scene, I thought, this is just another crappy B horror movie trying to start off by being "edgy", so I kept watching through Dawson's character waking up in the dilapidated drug house, thinking to myself "yeah this is probably just a drama and if it is not, it's a tacky convention to parallel *this* parabolic descent story with some creature-killin-in-caves and her redeeming herself by killing creatures, so she better torture that lil football poofter". <br/>Problem is, I don't think this is that great of a performance from Dawson, just because you do a rape movie doesn't make your career. <br/>And the movie fails on its point, because call me fucked up, but I enjoyed the revenge rape scene. Yup I don't mind some stuck up jock getting his ass split and kind of liking it, so for me that totally washes out the scene of Dawson's character getting raped. Compare this film to "O Fantasma", a real art-house movie that also includes plotted homosexual rape, and you will see that "Descent" cannot compare when it comes to depicting a character sliding into an amoral and degraded existence, which is ultimately the point of this movie, not all the graphic rape bookending the fall, but those are really the only compelling moments, which is never good for a director to say, "well at least it's got good rape scenes". So sadly that means the whole middle of the movie could have been gutted, so next time this director wants to do an effective feature, they may want to consider a rewrite to make sure there is sufficient material to cover it, instead of duping me into watching a piece that is seventy minutes too long. "So Fucked Up" highlight: using a bedpost to get the anal rape started; that I was aroused by the muscley latin guy revenge raping the frat twat

• Dean M

  
  Yawn! Bloody dull and sicko R-rated drama I ever saw about the exact revenge of a date-raped co-ed. I couldn't stand and watch the final scene of co-ed's revenge upon her attacker.

• Daniel P

  
  Spoilers ahead. Rosario Dawson's performance is undeniably magnificent in <i>Descent</i> - comparisons to Hilary Swank in <i>Boys Don't Cry</i> and Robert DeNiro in <i>Taxi Driver</i> perhaps overstating it a little, but still… More
  Spoilers ahead. Rosario Dawson's performance is undeniably magnificent in <i>Descent</i> - comparisons to Hilary Swank in <i>Boys Don't Cry</i> and Robert DeNiro in <i>Taxi Driver</i> perhaps overstating it a little, but still exceptionally good. Talia Lugacy's direction is fairly strong, and there's some inventive techniques and experimentation with color schemes and shutter speeds that give the film a dreamlike/drunk feeling that works surprisingly well. Little else does, however. A rape revenge tale that tries to skewer things in a 'shocking' finale, but to be honest, the anal rape of Jared was a little ridiculous and - I know this is going to make me sound totally disturbed - the way it was set up and filmed made it a bit... erotic. Ahem. Besides which, I totally do not buy that Maya would fall for Jared at the beginning - she's supposed to be an intelligent young woman (studying PSYCHOLOGY for fuckssake), yet doesn't see the obvious <i>the call is coming from inside the house</i> type warnings; Jared is clearly a scummy, cringey douche. There's also two scenes that thoroughly pissed me off - the first has Jared being bullied in the locker-room - it's a heavy handed way of saying 'this is why Jared is fucked up' and it's skin-crawlingly terrible. The second has Jared leaving an identical next-date follow-up message on, presumably, a second potential victim's answerphone; word-for-word the same as that left on Maya's phone earlier in the film. <i>Descent</i> simply did not need this scene - I found it completely patronising and it's intent is obvious and contrived, much like the whole film, really.

• Leo L

  
  Now, here's an interesting movie with a very sensitive issue at hand. An occurance that happens too often in this world. Rosario Dawson is definitely remarkable, it's very interesting to see her take on more diverse roles. Worth seeing!