The Descent (2005)
Thursday, August 24th, 2006
Written & Directed by: Neil Marshall
Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone, Oliver Milburn, Molly Kayll
Runtime: 99 min.
Rating: R
Trailer
It is becoming increasingly rare to find a genre movie that actually delivers its intended thrills, whether it’s the consistent laughs of a comedy, the suspense of a thriller, a good jolt from an action film, or, as in the case of The Descent, a visceral scare from a well made horror film. These days, horror films rely more on setting up and drawing out scenes of torture and brutality that are cringe inducing and shocking, but not necessarily frightening. With The Descent, Neil Marshall creates a setup – six female friends trapped in a cave - where scaring the hell out of you is important, but not at the expense of classic, concise storytelling. A year after a tragic accident befalls a group of female thrill seekers, they reunite at a remote cabin for a planned spelunking expedition. Having underestimated the dangers of a series of uncharted caves, they forge ahead deeper into the labyrinthine network of tunnels and passageways for a way out. When not battling with conflicting egos, jealousies, and emotional anxieties, the group is tested to the limit from packs of horrifying albino monsters stalking them.
The great fun of The Decent is in its near flawless execution, and even during the early scenes, it offers up at least two good scares that might send you falling out of your chair. Taking time for character introductions and orientation before plunging into the cave, Marshall draws out the characters as best he can, steering clear of simple clichéd scenes common to the genre. Here, the characters quickly establish themselves as independent, headstrong women with such economy that when trapped in the caves, the audience can quickly identify when certain characters abandon their comfortable modes of behaviour for an instinctive, and sometimes brutal, desire to survive at any cost. While most of the squirming and gore is saved for scenes inside the caves, the first act of The Descent adeptly creates an atmosphere of impending doom through simple music cues and cold, blue-tinged cinematography that contrasts with the dark, smothering claustrophobia of the caves. Inside those caves, though, is where the film truly becomes a harrowing experience that undoubtedly will leave you breathless and desperate for an open field of color, people, and space…lots of space. It is an immense testament to the quality of technique displayed that the real frightening elements occur with scenes of claustrophobia and isolation and not with the wickedly gory smorgasbord of blood during the monster attacks. While the film is gory, it is never utilized to simply shock and sicken; its impact is visceral and unnerving because Marshall never wallows in excess, utilizing brief flashes to scare and unnerve but leaving the rest up to that old standby: the audiences’ imagination. While The Descent is far from the greatest horror movie of all time, it is classic storytelling at a time when the art of telling a good story, regardless of genre, seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006
