Six women set off on their yearly adventure, this time it's to explore some caves. One of the narrow passageways collapses and their route out is blocked off. They find out that they are not in the caves they were supposed to be. Juno has brought them all to a set of unexplored caves that she hoped that the group of them could discover together.
They come only to encounter a hybrid race creatures evolved to survive in the dark.
Starts off a bit slow with the cabin scenes but it really picks up once they hit the caves.
This film exceeded my expectations. The best scene was when Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) rose up out of a massive pool of blood. Just awesome :D
like when the girls got together and experience wild outdoor activity...but it turned out that they face a sudden attack and the creature is totally disgusting
The descent with the appropriate ending is amazing. The film is very slow and the monsters don't even come until nearly an hour in but the film uses the journey further into the cavern as a way of building tension. The trip down as well is quite enjoyable and lets the characters be very well developed and the viewer has the ability to really feel the despair of the situation. The film doesn't use any cliche or cheap scares to bring in the horror and is highly original in its' execution. The film has its share of gore, but most of the horror comes from the ambiance of the cavern itself. A very well done horror film and too bad more of the newer films couldn't learn from it.
I found myself wondering why everybody said this was reallly good. I know the ending was changed for America (which made it a really typical horror movie, by the way), and I would've preferred it the other way. Although, it certainly gave me the claustrophobia creeps.
A lot of people have declared true love with this film. I can't. I bought it the day it came out. Not only did I find it boring, uninspired, badly acted and annoying, I found it shit. There is one good part in the movie, in which an accident leads to an actual emotional response, making me feel bad for the victim, and glad when the responsible party got hers.
Brutal, vicious and bloody. If I'd ever had the urge to go spelunking, this movie would have beat it out of me.
It's not for the squeamish or claustrophobic.
I was disappointed upon finding out that it wasn't actually filmed in a cave, but it scared the crap out of me, lots of blood, gore, and creepily pale humanoids.
i'v been watching sum "horror" movies lately and this is more like it. scary, thats what this film is. amazing performances from this all female cast. if i was watchin this in a cinema, with the loud sound, i'd be fucking terrified.
Definetly a Classic in total horror and gore!!! A must see!!!! Terrifying and heart stopping and like nothing you will ever see in a while!!! A great movie!!!
It's lost the half mark for scaring the shit out of me, I know that's what it's meant to do though, excellent horror film, horror nut? Definitely watch it!
This movie defies several of the most terrible normalities of modern horror movies. Even when it uses "gotcha" scares it doesn't come off terribly because they are well-placed. With wonderful acting, cinematography, and music, this movie taps into our natural fears of claustrophobia, darkness, and the unknown. It has GREAT acting from all of the female leads, I can't stress enough how refreshing that is to see in a horror movie these days. And oh my goodness...CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! What? In a horror movie?....NO WAY! A horror movie were you actually care about the characters. For proving that horror movies can be taken seriously (not to mention scaring the hell out of me)...it is one of my favorites.
Best horror movie of recent memory...an actual plot, amazing level of "believable" tension, and just about everything a good MOVIE should be (not just a good horror movie). ALL horror movie fans should see this movie! It is a good movie in general though, so if you're not afraid of horror movies, see it too.
Really great horror movie. I found myself feeling trapped and in suspense. And I was definitely yelling at the characters to do this and that - and not to do this and that. The only down-fall...the ending. But a good enough movie to forgive any ending.
THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE DESCENT's 'ORIGINAL UNRATED CUT' DVD.
Rebecca: "This isn't Boreham Caverns, is it, Juno? Juno: Holly was right! Boreham Caverns was a tourist trap! Holly: Don't try to pin this fucking shit on me! Rebecca: So where ARE we, Juno? Juno: It hasn't got a name. It's a new system. No one's ever been down here before. I wanted us all to discover it. Rebecca: So, this isn't caving. This is an ego-trip!"
I originally caught The Descent at a 24-hour film marathon a couple of years ago. All the films were secret so everything was a surprise, and this film was the biggest of all. Being a self-confessed fan of (good) horror, I can be overly critical towards this genre, considering my desensitization over the years very little scares the fuck out me anymore - the latest exception is a Spanish film called [Rec], which I already had the chance to praise here. Especially the current crop of horror (if you can call it that) films that seem to resort to cheap scares, obviously lead-you-in-the-right-direction, build-up music and quick cuts, these gimmicks are lame and furthermore an insult to any intelligent audience. Which is why if I ever have the chance to meet Geordie Neil Marshall, I'd proudly shake his hand, maybe even give him a friendly hug for creating such a fantastic horror film that's actually horrific, has some interesting characters that you care about and creating an overall sense of tension and dread which he manages to sustain throughout the entire film without having to cheapen out on us. Phenomenal work mate!
I hadn't been genuinely freaked out by a horror flick in a while, and this truly was an edge-of-your-seat experience about a group of six female adventurers that go on a caving expedition. Because that's what hip 20-something British chicks do! They get stuck in an uncharted cave system and discover a bunch of freaky Gollum-looking monsters, called crawlers that begin to hunt them down systematically. Oh yeah, these things are also blind and hunt with sound. The point is that Marshall actually came up with a decent script, an original idea and a believable story.
The film doesn't really get going until about 30 minutes in, Marshall gives you ample time to get to know the characters, six women, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Beth (Alex Reid), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), Sam (MyAnna Buring) and Holly (Nora-Jane Noone), who will likely appeal to many different people, I certainly have my favorites. We are provided an opportunity to explore their personalities and of course the usual set-up for the story. Sarah has recently suffered a tragedy, her husband , Paul (Oliver Milburn) was impaled in a car accident, Sarah witnessed this from the passenger side seat. This turned out to be a traumatic experience that hasn't left her the same since. A year later, her friends arrange an adventure trip to explore some caves.
The main reason, the way I see it, as to why The Descent works so well is the cave structure the women find themselves trapped in. It creates an appropriate sense of claustrophobia that provides the drive for most of the tension built up during the course of the film. Marshall utilises several techniques to give the audience the jumps - which are literally hundreds. He plays with darkness extremely well, lighting these caves practically with whatever the girls have on them: helmet lights, flashlights, flares, fire and glow sticks. Sam McCurdy's cinematography is not only realistic but allows Marshall to use the darkness as a tool to scare the viewers into not knowing what's going to happen around each corner and crevasse. I've seen a few horror films with rather impractical lighting that ruins the atmosphere and The Descent took a rational approach to it and managed to pull it off.
Sound is also used to maximum effect; imagine being stranded in a dark cave and all you can hear are drips of water, the occasional echo of one's voice interrupted by the snares and grunts of creatures hiding in the dark waiting to get you. Well, you don't need to imagine that, Marshall and crew created that environment with an equal balance of tried and tested film techniques. Which is yet another impressive aspect of this film, no CGI. That's right, a modern horror film without the aide of computer generated monsters and all that bullshit, everything you see on-screen are actual sets (with the occasional extension) and real monster make-up for the crawlers - the main one played by Craig Conway. This makes for a nice change of pace.
Unlike other films in this genre, the music is something largely overlooked, usually relegated to the standard creepy strings with stab-like effect or heavy metal track, an orchestral score seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur with horror but Marshall resurrects it with a thrilling score by David Julyan that heightens your tension, keeps you on the edge of your seat and creates an appropriate sense of menace without ever pandering to the audience. I hate it when the music gives away a scare, let silence do the work, and Marshall knows when to use music and for that I am grateful.
On the script level, Marshall - who wrote as well as directed - proves himself a master of genre film, hitting all the right notes while also showing himself willing and able to go the extra mile. With this sort of film he could probably have gotten away with writing very simple characters and going straight for the gore but his refusal to do that elevates Marshall's work above the genre pack. He builds a deep relationship between his characters, particularly between the central three, layering in depths of meaning and subtext with subtlety and grace, and those extra grace notes go a long way towards selling the story once the more extreme elements kick in. And as for those more extreme elements, Marshall simply nails them.
As for the cast, the entire group is strong with Shauna MacDonald turning in a particularly strong performance in the lead, and most emotionally demanding role. Group dynamics are a hard thing to get right, particular in a group this size made up almost entirely of people who are supposed to have been close friends for years, and this group makes it look effortless. All of the players do a fine job when it comes to selling the more physical elements of things and, let's be honest here, who doesn't love the sight of a blood drenched woman bashing in the skull of an underground ghoul with the thigh of some long dead animal?
And finally, the execution. Marshall is simply dead solid behind the camera. He shoots gorgeous film and paces things beautifully. He shifts gears seamlessly between moods and always knows when to tease and when to deliver. He establishes his mastery with a pair of early sequences. He uses the opening three minutes of the film - a river rafting sequence revolving around the central three characters - to instantly and easily establish the relationship between the three while also delivering the tragedy that will drive MacDonald's character through the rest of the film with casual, ruthless efficiency. And again, when the film jumps forward in time a year to get us to the larger group, Marshall needs just a few minutes to establish and link each of his six characters. With just a few minutes we easily understand each of them and their relationship to one another. That he can pull this off so easily is no small feat. And Marshall's not just good with character, he is a maestro at manipulating tension and sending in the gushes of blood.
The Descent is one hell of a ride into the depths. Neil Marshall has created something quite important and possibly revolutionary for the horror genre: a menacing horror film that doesn't resort to cheap shots, and one of the most effective, oh-so-fucking-brilliant endings I've ever seen. If you're a horror fan, if you already haven't, you must lay your eyes on this film and your hands on this disc.
I like this: good acting, well balanced scares, the relationship plot (and subsequent twists)is a little bit annoying. The creatures are extremely well designed, and there are some great jump scares in this piece, as well as consistently good cinematography. However, I'm just not head over heels in love with this like so many people are. Neil Marshall is a talented director, no doubt, and it may be unfair of me to expect subtext pearls from horror movies (I've got that bias from the hundreds of times I've watched Dawn of the Dead) and this movie doesn't deliver in terms of resounding theme. Other than that, it's a top notch horror flick, but it's a superficial thrill ride, be forewarned.
Though the cover is cool, this movie never quite lives up to it's scary potential. More use of night-vision scares and missing frames editing for the creature's movement. Not impressed at all.
MCT:June 4, 2008
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