The Descent


4/4

Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone

The version being reviewed is the Unrated version.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Strong Violence/Gore and Language

“The Descent” is a go-for-broke type of movie.  If it works, it’s brilliant, if it doesn’t, it’s a disaster.  With almost no character development or subplots for the film to fall back on, writer/director Neil Marshall took a big risk making this low-budget horror show.  And it pays off…for precisely those reasons.

Six women go caving in the Appalachian Mountains.  Soon after, there’s a cave-in, and the cavers have no choice but to push on and try to find a way out.  Disorientation, claustrophobia, panic and fear of never seeing the daylight ever again are all hurdles they must get through in order to get out.  And that’s before the monsters show up.

On a technical level, this film is a masterpiece.  Using no set lighting and only the light that the characters have (headlamps, glowsticks, flares, etc.), Marshall is able to put us directly into the cave with the characters.  The power of suggestion (a must for any effective horror movie) is in hyperdrive; we only see what they see.  His deliberate choices of unique camera angles (a woman crawling through a tight space in the lower corner of the screen) only adds to the disorientation.  Marshall succeeds in scaring the living hell out of the viewer before the real terror begins.

I have heard criticisms lobbed at “The Descent” for Marshall’s choice to turn this into a monster movie.  Such criticisms are unfair.  This is the movie that Marshall wanted to make, and the scares don’t dissipate when the monsters show up; actually they intensify, and gives a climax to the long buildup that preceded it.  Could Marshall have made a great horror film without the monsters?  Absolutely.  But that’s not his goal, so he shouldn’t be faulted for making a decision that pays off.

Marshall wastes no time with character development.  Apart from a few things, we don’t know much about them.  Instead, he relies on the skill of actors to build personalities that make them sympathetic and identifiable.  It’s a bold and risky move, but the talented cast pulls it off.  In a sense, Marshall shows the same skill with actors that James Cameron and Jan de Bont have.  None of the characters in their movies were any more than paper thin, but with talent and direction, they were molded into unique individuals.

The plot is also streamlined.  There are no little subplots running around (well, there is one, but it’s not especially important and is only referenced a few times in the film).  Again, this could have tanked the film, but instead, it enhances it.  The characters have only one thing on their minds: survival.  It’s kill or be killed, and this kind of a threadbare story gives Marshall the opportunity to let his mind run wild with action scenes and other creative ways to ratchet up the tension to nearly unbearable levels.

For about 80 minutes, the film moves at a breakneck pace and is a superior horror film.  After that, one of the characters goes through a major personality change for reasons, while identified, aren’t particularly convincing.  To be fair, horror films (especially those of this ilk) aren’t known for their character development, but for anyone who is paying attention it will seem more than a little jarring.

That being said, this is a must-see for any horror film fan, or anyone who wants a good scarefest (and doesn’t mind blood and gore in copious quantities).

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