Overall Rating
  Awesome: 62.9%
Worth A Look: 16.67%
Average: 13.44%
Pretty Bad: 5.38%
Total Crap: 1.61%
13 reviews, 108 user ratings
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Descent, The |
by MP Bartley
"People, the message is clear: never go outdoors!"

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How should a film critic review a horror film, in particular a great one, like 'The Descent'? It's much like trying to review a comedy without spoiling the jokes, as you try to tell people how scary it is without telling them just why. But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to tell you just when to expect certain scenes that will get you shrieking and peeking through your fingers at the screen. I'm not going to tell you just which of the characters can and can't be trusted. I'm going to try and make this review as spoiler-free as I can, because I guarantee that going in knowing as little as possible, will mean that 'The Descent' will fry your nerves and give you the most purely horrifying two hours even the most jaded of horror fans will have ever had.Meet Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Beth (Alex Reid), Sam (Myanna Burning), Holly (Nora-Jane Noone) and Rebecca (Saskia Mulder). Six friends who share a love of adventure sports and have decided that for this summers escapade, they will go cave exploring in the Appalachian mountains. Sarah is feeling a little fragile at the minute, so her best friend Beth is along, mainly to look after her. Juno is the spirited, if over-bearing, leader of the group and Holly is her unpredictable, on the edge protege. Sam is the medical student and youngest of the group whose mothering elder sister is Rebecca. Soon, one of them will have stabbed another in the throat and one of them will have her skull smashed open by one of her companions. And the rest of them? Let's just say it's not pretty.
Welcome to 'The Descent'.
Because down in the caves, these women will find something waiting for them in the darkness. I'm not going to say what, apart from it's not werewolves. Because this is certainly not 'Dog Soldiers'. Whereas in that film you had six squaddies banding together to fight off a common enemy, here Neil Marshall takes a totally different approach. Here, when the claustrophobia kicks in, the girls bicker, fight and generally don't pull in the same direction meaning a bad situation gets rapidly worse. Much worse.
And while 'Dog Soldiers' is a wonderful blend of horror and comedy, Marshall again takes a different road and succeeds just as confidently. There's no warm and snappy banter here, just a grim and desperate fight for survival. This results in what is probably the best out-and-out horror for years. If 'Dog Soldiers' brought to mind 'Aliens' this is 'The Thing' meets 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'.
Even in the first hour, when we don't see or know what is waiting to feast upon the unlucky ladies, Marshall ramps up the tension to queasy levels. As the girls squeeze through gaps Paris Hilton might find a tight fit, Marshall pushes his camera into every nook and cranny, and right into the panicked faces of the protagonists. This is a cinematic experience that will have the claustrophobic amongst you desperate for air yourselves. And although it won't happen, 'The Descent' should be the first on the list for the Academy's consideration of best production design. The caves here are a wet, dark, dripping nightmare with no light at all apart from the lights the girls themselves bring. Huge chunks of the film are cast in near darkness, meaning that anything could be lurking in the shadows. And frequently something is.
It would have been so easy for the tone of the film to fall flat between the tense and foreboding first half and the creature-infested second. But it doesn't. Once the creatures do arrive, the film tightens into full-blown, blood-drenched horror. Legs are splintered, eyes are gouged and heads are smashed. And the less said about a nasty case of rope burn the better...
'The Descent' shows just how well Neil Marshall knows horror, and just how much confidence he has as a director. From the relatively simple cottage setting of his debut, he really pushes himself here and nails every target he reaches for. Fights are shot upside down, in the water, with several intensely-crafted sequences of terror that will have nerves rattling long after the credits have rolled. Marshall knows exactly what he's doing, setting some scenes up so you just know something's about to jump out at you, only to feint and get you with a sucker punch you just didn't see coming. And you know how people say 'Carrie' has the greatest 'jump' of all time? There's at least two moments here to rival it. I don't scare too easily, but I unashamedly yelped out here AND nearly crushed my girlfriend's hand.
His cast are also excellent through and through with Macdonald, Mendoza and Reid the standouts. It's further testament to his writing that we get an immediate feel of the dynamics, rivalries and tensions between the girls just through looks or small parts of dialogue. There's a huge history between two in particular that we can all recognise, and that you just know in the hands of a lesser writer would have required a long dialogue scene that isn't needed to spell it out.
But the film has no desire to slow down for unneccessary character moments. It has one aim, to frighten you remorselessly, and it achieves that aim without respite.With his two features, Neil Marshall gives further credence that he's the new Sam Raimi. One of his films is a horror/comedy best viewed on a boys night in with beer and pizza, while the other is an exercise in pure fear. If 'Dog Soldiers' gained a cult following in America, then 'The Descent' will certainly got more people sitting up and taking note, provided it gets the release it certainly deserves. And if it does, then expect a Hollywood studio to come wafting a big wad of money Marshall's way with his pick of projects. Hopefully Marshall's undoubted skill as a horror director, won't be neutered if Hollywood does come a-calling, but for now just take the long, dark descent into hell that he's offering right now.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=12642&reviewer=293 originally posted: 07/20/05 00:42:06
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2006 Sundance Film Festival For more in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2006 Philadelphia Film Festival For more in the 2006 Philadelphia Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2006 San Francisco Film Festival For more in the 2006 San Francisco Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2006 Fantasia Film Festival For more in the 2006 Fantasia Film Festival series, click here.
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USA 04-Aug-2006 (R) DVD: 26-Dec-2006
UK 08-Jul-2005
Australia 23-Nov-2006
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