Film Review – The Descent (2005)
A Claustrophobic Horror from the Acclaimed Director of Dog Soldiers
The Descent, the second film by Newcastle’s Neil Marshall, is about a group of six women who decide to go spelunking inside an empty compacted maze of tunnels during a holiday in the USA. The team leader Juno (Natalie Mendoza) takes them the wrong way after a passage collapses meaning the woman must continue forward to escape but are running low on light and supplies. Soon they discover that the caves might not be inhabitable after all.
Unlike most quick to the gore movies it’s a good 50 minutes of cave exploration and character developing dialogue before anything bordering on supernatural or horrific occurs. A huge chunk of the suspense is based on the women being trapped in a dark cave rather than the blind, horrible looking bat/humanoid creatures that are hunting them.
Neil Marshall Creates Real Scares and Tension in The Descent
Neil Marshall is the British thriller equivalent of Shane Meadows as he is able to take a concept and for a fraction of the budget available to his Hollywood contemporaries can make something that looks just as stylish. On a design level it is fantastic as the impressive lighting - or lack thereof – and David Julyan’s score create a real atmosphere that makes the many jump out of your seat moments all the more scary.
What makes The Descent stand out is that it goes against horror convention by using an all-female cast. This is by no means a gimmick as they are tough women who aren’t stereotyped characters written in for the sole purpose of being fodder to be killed on screen or clichéd damsels in distress destined to fall into the final girl scenario.
The multi-national cast does seem like a cheap attempt to sell the film to foreign audiences but the natural acting from all involved and the added element that the plot utilises past history of the characters - namely Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and Juno - to build up tension when things really get nasty towards the end makes up for any possible box-ticking.
The Descent is a Film with Genuine Scares
This is a film that not only plays on the fear of the dark and the unknown but also the sense of being isolated. There is a truly heart-stopping scene where Sarah has to keep absolutely still using only a video camera as her eyes as a crawler is inches away from her face, a similar technique that would later be employed in Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s terrifying [Rec].
But despite Marshall’s attempt to try something different in the genre, as the women are given equal screen time and development the film does turn into a guessing game of who will survive. It’s not a major criticism on the director as the question of who lives and who dies is a staple or horror films, just that it’s not used as creatively as Marc Evans’ My Little Eye – which preys on audience expectations as part of its satire of reality TV.
The Descent: Part 2 Released on May 15
Although the ending of the film was ambiguous just a quick glimpse of the synopsis for the sequel, which follows straight on from the story of the original, reveals the true conclusion. The Descent: Part 2 is co-produced by Marshall but, more importantly, not written or directed by him so whether or not it will be worth the price of admission waits to be seen. The Descent however remains as a standard bearer of gripping modern horror that shocks its audience and leaves them with a sense of satisfaction.
- Starring Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid
- Directed and written by Neil Marshall
- Running time: 95 minutes
The Descent poster
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Film & TV
Latest Articles