The Descent
Review by Peter Syslo

If you lived in Hell and you had cable TV, the Lifetime Movie Network would be showing movies like THE DESCENT (2005) – and you would still be overcharged for cable. Oh! That’s right! The cable companies are from Hell – from the boring and repetitive sections of Hell, at least. All joking aside, there is nothing boring or repetitive about THE DESCENT. It is a pretty good horror movie, from the continually interesting director, Neil Marshall. It is similar to THE CAVE, which did come out around the same time period, but THE DESCENT is actually a much better movie. It’s interesting because it has an all female cast – I mean no men, except for the very beginning - which is unusual for a horror film (the reason for my Lifetime joke). I think that Marshall did a really go od job of directing and scripting all-female interaction, which is something not everyone is good at… especially men. All in all, the moral of the story is that humans are their own worst enemy and that always seems to strike a chord; and if that doesn’t reverberate, then you don’t really understand the world, my friends.

THE DESCENT is written and directed by Neil Marshall (DOG SOLDIERS). The film stars a lesser-known cast (which in many cases can help a film, as in this one) including: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone, Myanna Buring, and Oliver Milburn.

THE DESCENT is about of group of female “friends” who plan to go on a spelunking vacation in the Appalachian Mountains . There is some history between the friends and one is actually grieving for her newly dead husband and child. However, as all foolish explorers seem to do, they pass up a safe and well-explored cave for an uncharted one – which leads to all sorts of trouble. So, the women, who are between the first and second group of women in DEATHPROOF on the likeability scale, forge ahead through the cave and learn the true evil inside of the cave… and inside of each other (unintentional sex joke).

THE DESCENT was pretty good; it wasn’t perfect, but it was probably one of the better horror films from that year. It’s funny, because I actually remember the TV spots where the announcer would say, “It goes farther than HOSTEL!”. In a way, I think that that kind of marketing may have caused it to be overlooked by some folk and it may have caused some to be disappointed by it, because it is not really a super gore-fest. It has blood, don’t get me wrong, but it also has some substance, as well.

The story is a little derivative and it is very similar to THE CAVE or LEVIATHAN, but Marshall did take the idea to new places and the movie was fairly scary. I think that one of the main things that made it scary was the camerawork; it was some of the best “cave” photography and cave effects that I have seen, apart from a National Geographic magazine. I really got that claustrophobic, dark, despairing feeling from the whole atmosphere and it added to the scares, when the creatures appeared. Regarding the creatures, they were very realistic looking and effective “monsters” which enhanced the doom with their mutated/flesh-eating zombie aspect.

Also, what “elevated” the movie above a tired old monster flick, was the layered storyline. I really liked the various levels of the story and the levels of horror which were involved: there is the horror of human nature, with the whole back story between the two women and the unfaithful husband (any woman would cheer at the mistress’ fate); there is the horror of loss and grief, in the beginning; there is the horror of being trapped underground in a dark, dangerous cave; and lastly, there is the horror of the creatures. It really is a testament to the fact that a good story and script can guide a movie, successfully, through most obstacles.