Review of Descent, The

Introduction

Following the success of low budget 2002-werewolf thriller Dog Soldiers, writer/director, Neil Marshall has decided that, if the formula works milk it some more. By his admission this film is the sister to the aforementioned and those words ring true because other than a fleeting appearance by Oliver Milburn at the beginning of this movie the cast is all female.

The film opens with Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and her two friends Juno (Natalie Mendoza) and Beth (Alex Reid) white water rafting in what is later revealed as Scotland. Sarah`s husband and daughter appear and she senses all is not well among the group as the family leave for home. Her curiosity knows no satisfaction though, as there is a horrible accident. This is spectacular and sets the gory blueprint for the rest of the movie, watch the eerie aftermath scene carefully as the camera begins to soar skyward.

Sarah is hugely traumatised by this event and suffers nightmares, panic attacks and flashbacks. But cue one year ahead and what better to expedite her recovery than a trip down an unexplored, unnamed cave in the Appalachian Mountains.

It`s the idea of Juno, the bouncy, invigorating yet shady friend and best buds Sarah and Beth arrive apprehensively at the log cabin to meet with her and the rest of the crew, Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), Sam (MyAnna Buring) and new-addition - notorious base jumper, Holly (Nora-Jane Noone).

Rebecca and Sam are Scandinavian sisters and that`s probably the most remarkable thing about them. Holly`s a bit of a risk-taker in a kind of annoying way, not just to the audience, she`s also a bit of a liability to her new friends. The most frustrating thing about her though is trying to place where you have seen her before - Corrie fans will recognise her as Steve Mc Donald`s Irish ex.

After a night of female cabin capers the girls head off to find the cave and "claim it as their own." However after abseiling down fifty feet or so, a very bad series of judgments by Juno and the odd natural disaster leave the group trapped in the heart of the pitch-black cave and quite possibly miles from recognisable terra firma.

They must now navigate their way through where no human has gone before and climb across bottomless canyons. Rebecca does a very good Meg Ryan while attempting this.

The group stumble upon evidence of previous "human" occupation, literally, and why usually snap-happy Holly decides not to photograph the ancient wall markings is beyond me. Maybe she used all her film snapping the dead moose they encountered before taking the plunge?

Anyway, it`s just about this point the film really begins to get scary and what better place to shoot a horror flick than a cave. I think the setting is a huge benefactor to the film`s appeal - not since Jodie Foster fumbled her way through Buffalo Bill`s `studio` in Silence of the Lambs have you wanted someone to escape so much.

It`s very claustrophobic and creepy and when the `baddies` appear, well, just imagine being trapped underground with something that has clearly OD`d on the Ready Brek and will now quite happily eat your head. Sometimes you do wish that someone would just flick out a mobile and bawl down some call centre worker in Delhi for help.


This wouldn`t be a real horror film though if everyone came skipping out for a rendition of Ging-Gang Gooly round the campfire, wouldn`t be much of a film either.


The Descent doesn`t disappoint though, it has deceit, violence and suspense in spades. It also has the ability to be very enjoyable while making you anxious at the same time, strange that but somehow it`s almost a relief when it`s over.

Video

Good transfer here. Picture quality is clear although the cave interior scenes are often hard to keep up with because it`s so dark. This can be a bit frustrating but you get used to it. Some great camera angles and direction by Marshall especially during fight scenes.

Audio

Sound effects are great. There are some fantastic squelchy noises when someone/thing gets skewered and the crawlers can make your blood curdle. Maybe a bit much for some folk but it all makes for a good movie.

Features

There were no extra features on the disc I viewed other than cast and crew commentary and subtitle options.

Conclusion

I liked this film, I`m not a huge horror fan but I enjoyed this. It has some of those great surprise/shock moments and is a good follow-up to Dog Soldiers although pretty much the same format. Main character casting is fine but some of the supporting cast don`t really add that much to the movie at all. A great one to watch with the lights out and the wind howling outside for full impact.