Cast:
Shauna Macdonald (Sarah Carter), Natalie Mendoza (Juno Kaplan), MyAnna Buring (Samantha "Sam" Vernet), Saskia Mulder (Rebecca Vernet), Alex Reid (Elizabeth "Beth" O'Brien), Nora-Jane Noone (Holly Mills), Oliver Milburn (Paul Carter), and Molly Kayll (Jessica Carter) Written and Directed by Neil Marshall.
Review:
"I very specifically set out to make the scariest movie I could. There was malicious intent on my part, I wanted to scare the shit out of people.”
Hey, sometimes you have to do a British horror film that isn't just a Hammer movie. This was the second feature film of Neil Marshall, born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He wanted to make movies since he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which led to spend plenty of time with an 8mm camera and eventually study in film school before he got to do freelance work as an editor (such as with Killing Time (1995)). In 2002, he had his first chance to direct with Dog Soldiers, an action-horror film that made quite an impression. In fact, it was the success of that film that inspired him to make the film, since a reviewer asked when a "Brit" was going to make a really scary horror film again. After pitching an idea of a zombie oil rig movie went south, a three-hour train journey inspired the idea that became this film, with a co-producer being the one that came up with the idea of the main cast being all women (interesting to note the fact that we have to note this at all, but here we are). There are two endings in the film, with one being incorporated in North America (as distributed by Lionsgate) that aimed for a less depressing ending in order to get a wider release by basically cutting 30 seconds of the original ending (which depending on your perspective could actually be the happier ending). By coincidence, this film was released less than a month before The Cave, a horror movie about...well, you know (this movie was hurriedly shot in January and February for release in July). In 2009, a sequel called The Descent Part 2 was released, with the editor from the first film in Jon Harris being the director while two of the original cast members return. Marshall was a producer on the film, but he described in later years as "totally unnecessary".
Sometimes you need something that can have fun with making a horror film intending to aim for claustrophobia that exceeds the expectations by its premise for a delicately terrifying horror film. Seemingly inspired by Deliverance (1972) and The Thing (1982) without becoming pastiches of them, Marshall managed to make a movie that ruminates about the nature of grief and self-preservation that takes risks for the benefit of the patient viewer. It's the kind of movie that you can interpret through its title (without sounding embarrassing, of course). It has capable characters that seem like real folks before it veers into the parts of the creature feature that does have blood but not at the lose of the blood in one's head. In this case, it involves dwellers (appearing pretty late in the 100-minute movie) that look like cavemen that never left the caves (or Nosferatu (1922)) without having to spend much time on mythmaking besides what you see and hear from the mazes in caves that has quality lighting. Hell, even the climax is swift in execution, finding the right time to close things out without stopping dead in its tracks. One isn't too far removed from terror, whether that involves murky monsters, splatters of blood, or bones being set. In that sense, Macdonald does well in conveying the shaken build-up of someone filled with isolation and trauma that we care about in the descent towards in both cave and mind. Mendoza plays the other part of the descent in terms of self-preservation that is just as convincing to make an interesting look at a fractured pair of people without beating one over the head with it. They are a shaky duo of friends in all the right ways when it comes to seeing and hearing fractures. The others do fine, although with a movie that does have a body-count, you can only roll with certain folks for a certain amount of time - Noone was probably the most interesting in terms of daredevil charm. I admire the attempt at showing a trip through trauma in all the forms it encompasses (such as old memories stinging in one's head or awkward reminders), it makes the endpoint all the more compelling. As a whole, it does invite plenty of chills for those who do not imagine themselves as fans of being in a tight space without much lighting (as captured brilliantly in sets). The climax is swift in ways you usually don't see in a horror movie (regardless of which cut you see), aiming for stone cold starkness and hitting the mark on that regard, if only because it seems like the kind of movie that earns its ending without being overblown about it (sure, there's a sequel, but why the hell does that matter?). As a whole, I enjoyed the movie in its imperfections and successes, one that sticks the landing in churning fears by finding the right story beats to embrace and dodge without mockery or stumbling in the ways that matter. Fifteen years has only made this seem better as a quiet gem, clearly.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
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