6 girlfriends reunite some time after a tragic accident to go on a caving expedition. What starts out as a fun adventure soon goes terribly wrong when, due to rockfall, they find themselves trapped inside the cave. Being deep underground, their friendships begin to fall apart and if that wasn't enough, the cave is filled with bloodthirsty creatures as well. They soon find themsleves in a struggle against not only the creatures, but also against each other while desperatly trying to make it out alive.
I was expecting The Descent to be a pretty decent horror flick since it's directed by Neil Marshall who gave us the really good werewolf flick, Dog Soldiers. Still, I would never have believed this movie to turn out to be as great as it did, as it is an exceptionally great horror movie, something we don't get to see too often. The Descent manage to do something that most movies fail to do, and that is to make you forget that you're just watching a movie. You get drawn into it and for 99 minutes there's just The Descent, nothing else.
The story is quite simple but it's all that's needed, and it delivers in every aspect. Forget your usual stereotypical teen cast, common horror clichés and cheap scares, and expect brilliant directing, fantastic gore, suspense to the brim and a truly claustrophobic atmosphere. It sounds like I'm really promoting the movie here, but I'm not, it's just a really good flick, something that does not come along often enough.
The movie is set almost entirely underground so of course it's dark. But the use of light is done really well, and a cool thing is that they use a different colours of light for each character, once they're separeted from each other. It's nothing fantastic but is quite original and is one of these little extra things that adds to the whole outcome of the movie itself.
So these British girls go to the Appalachian Mountains in the US to do some cave exploring. Not too much happens in the beginning and for a while on, although it's never dull and the overall pace of the movie couldn't infact have been any better. Once they hit the cave and have just spent a short amount of time there, things really start happening and from there on it's chaos and mayhem all the way. It's not too much character development but it's still enough to get to know these girls a bit, something that in the end makes you somewhat care for what happens to them.
What I mentioned before about a claustrophobic atmosphere couldn't be more true. Since they are stuck underground, it's dark and it's hard to get through places, it gives you this claustrophobic feel that is truly hard to shake off. This is definitely one of the high points of the movie.
Another high point being the creepy creatures that dwell within the cave. When finding out that these creatures are among them the movie, while staying true to what it started out like, takes a small turn and starts delivering more direct horror. Of course the suspense is still there since you never know when the creatures are gonna attack next and some of the scares are really effective. The creatures themselves look really good, are truly nasty and, simply put, just great to watch.
As far as I know, this movie has gotten some really good reviews, and that might make your expectations rise a bit, but even so, I'm almost certain that it'll deliver. It's a great horror flick that should not be missed.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Crawlspace
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Neil Marshall
WRITING CREDITS: Neil Marshall
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Shauna Macdonald, Nora-Jane Noone, Natalie Jackson Mendoza
COUNTRY: UK
RUNTIME: 99 min
RATING: 9/10
Descent, The Website/IMDB Click here
Descent, The Trailer Click here
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