The Descent Movie Review

The Descent (2005)

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Written by: Neil Marshall
Directed by: Neil Marshall
Starring:  Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid
Rated: R
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Plot
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.

Verdict
This has a surprising amount of gore. This starts out unsettling. You know something's going to go wrong and in the caves we often don't even know which way is up. When this goes bad, it goes wrong fast. You're just waiting for something to jump out. In addition to the scares this works in a story too, though there are a few too many characters.
Watch it.

Review
This is As Above, So Below (2014) (my review) done right. That movie had great potential but fell victim to hand held cam footage that made what was on screen unintelligible. It also has a bit of Bone Tomahawk (2015) (my review) in it as well.

Early on this is gory. I wasn't expecting that. I liked that in most movies it would be men white water rafting and caving. I like the female cast, but there are too many characters. Well, too many undeveloped characters. In the dark, I couldn't remember who half the cast was, though there are only two that really matter.

Once we get to the caves I was uneasy. In one of the first tunnels, it's a tight spot and you know something will happen. The movie toys with the viewer and it works. There are clues something is in the cave and that someone has explored the cave before. One of the women gets stuck, which is weird since she's the last one through the tunnel. She gets free but in her escape we don't know which way is even up, it's a great effect and feeling. To note, all cave scenes were a set. Filming in a real cave would have been too dangerous and time consuming.

The deeper they go the worse it gets. Animal skeletons give rise to predators. It's creepy. These creatures have evolved to be very efficient in that environment. Attacks ensure. The fight scenes are a bit unclear. It's hard to tell what's happening and that's on top of the side characters blending together. I don't mind gore, but this frequently felt over the top with blood spraying everywhere.

With the way the violence is depicted, at one point I wondered if this story mirrored one of the character's mental states. I don't know what the jumping off point would have been. There isn't a clear one, but the descent into the cave gives rise to this potentially being a dream or fantasy.

There is a U.S. and U.K. ending. Apparently I saw the U.K. ending which I like better. The U.S. version cuts the last scene where the U.K. ending is less ambiguous about the ending, it's dark and depressing.