The Descent (2005)
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85% of critics liked it
(168 reviews) -
71% of users liked it
(183,706 ratings)
A group of close female friends on a yearly adventure vacation find themselves trapped and hunted in a series of caves by an unknown force that lurks in the shadows in The Descent, the second horror feature from Dog Soldiers writer/director Neil Marshall. After suffering a devastating car crash one… More A group of close female friends on a yearly adventure vacation find themselves trapped and hunted in a series of caves by an unknown force that lurks in the shadows in The Descent, the second horror feature from Dog Soldiers writer/director Neil Marshall. After suffering a devastating car crash one year before, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) is lured to the States with her friend Beth (Alex Reid) to a special spelunking trip by the fearless Juno (Natalie Mendoza), who abruptly fled from the U.K. after Sarah's accident. Along with two old friends and a new acquaintance of Juno's, the group embark on a cave expedition that takes a turn for the worse after a rock fall leaves them stranded in an uncharted cave with no map and only a handful of supplies to last them the rest of the trip. As tensions arise in the group, they are faced with another danger -- one whose love of the dark is as strong as its lust for blood. Opening to rave reviews in the U.K. in July of 2005, the creature-feature went on to show at the Venice Film Festival and garnered the top prize for Euro feature at Sweden's Fantastic Film Festival. The Descent was picked up for future U.S. distribution by Lion's Gate, whose work was cut out for them considering the tame opening of the similarly-themed stateside production of The Cave in late-August of the same year. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
- Directed By
- Neil Marshall, Alex Reid
- Written By
- Neil Marshall
- Genres
- Horror
- In Theaters
- Aug 4, 2006 Wide
- Studio
- Lionsgate
Critic Reviews
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, TIME Magazine
Marshall could very well be the Caravaggio of the B-movie.
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
This intermittently effective UK horror thriller carefully establishes the psychological relationships among the women, then squanders this calibrated and generally plausible setup with a series of crude, implausible, and scattershot horror effects.
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Claudia Puig, USA Today
For my money, [the] first 20 or so minutes are the best in the film. Once the real adventure gets underway in the cave, things get less interesting.
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Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
While the movie has wonderful moments of unmotivated tension that make sure we're quite ill at ease from the beginning, it's also got a few too many of the kind of cheap boo-scares that indicate a director not fully trusting his grip on you.
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Judy Chia Hui Hsu, Seattle Times
Tight shots of women desperately wriggling through worm holes or teetering on a ledge overlooking an abyss create a claustrophobic effect, one that leaves the characters gasping for air and the audience breathing shallower.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Shauna MacDonald
as Sarah
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Natalie Jackson Mendoza
as Juno
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Alex Reid
as Beth
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Saskia Mulder
as Rebecca
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Nora-Jane Noone
as Holly
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MyAnna Buring
as Sam
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Oliver Milburn
as Paul
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Molly Kayll
as Jessica
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Leslie Simpson
as Crawler
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Justin Hackney
as Crawler
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Craig Conway
as Scar
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Steve Lamb
as Crawler
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Sophie Trott
as Crawler
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Catherine Dyson
as Crawler
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Tristan Matthiae
as Crawler
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Mark Cronfield
as Crawler
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Julie Ellis
as Crawler
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Stuart Luis
as Crawler



