The Descent: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

9/09/2007 Posted by Admin

Rising above expectations

(Originally published 2006)

The last time Hollywood spelunked us, it was in last year's "The Cave," and the disappointment ran deep--every one of its surprises was packaged. People got picked off, the screen shook, monsters roared, the prettiest survived. The film was bamboozled by banality, featuring an ending that was such a cheat, it offered no closure and thus only existed with the high hopes of setting up a sequel.

Thankfully, at this point, one isn't on the docket.

Neil Marshall's "The Descent," on the other hand, gets it right. From Marshall's own script, the film follows six women who regroup a year after tragedy leaves one of the women, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), nearly destitute.

Their new outing, designed by the adventure-seeking Juno (Natalie Mendoza), is meant to bring the women closer and put the steel back into their backbones. As such, what Juno suggests is a formidable challenge not without its risks--they will travel to the Appalachian Mountains and traverse a tricky, little-known cave system previously unclaimed by humans. The idea is that should they succeed, it will put them firmly back on track as a team while lifting everyone’s self-esteem in the process.

Naturally, stumbling blocks abound. First, the tunnels that wend through the cave are unnervingly claustrophobic and tight, so much so that bums tend to get stuck and anxiety attacks tend to strike when entrances start to crumble. This is, in fact, a trip in which one mother of a Xanax would come in handy, particularly since the real issue at hand here is that the cave already has been claimed, though not by humans.

Look beyond the stalagmites. Leaping amid them and eager for fresh meat are an amphibious race of blood-sucking beasts who appear to have been poached beyond the boiling point. Their skin is a slick, moist, pasty white. Their eyes might as well be peeled grapes. They can’t see, but their other senses are absolutely acute--and my, are they ever aggressive and hungry. You know, almost as aggressive as the six women they're about to be pitted against.

At my screening, when the movie really started to cook, you'd swear that those monsters had been unleashed within the theater--at several points, when the best jolts were let loose, the place came alive with genuine shrieks of delighted fright.

That was nice to see, particularly since the modern-day horror movie has become more interested in the less-interesting, base elements of joyless slaughter, degradation and humiliation ("Hostel," the "Saw" series, etc.) than in generating the sort of suspense and over-the-top gore that likely would have appealed to, say, a young Sam Raimi. While none of the actresses leave much of a mark here, they nevertheless are served by a skilled director who isn't afraid to play with the conventions of the genre while also taking it seriously.

That’s one of the reasons this British horror movie is as good as it is. It borrows, it pilfers and yet somehow, it's undeniably its own.

Grade: B+

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