Highly Enjoyable British Horror Entry

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2006)

From the Director of DOG SOLDIERS comes a very well made "mainstream" horror film. I have, for the most part, given up on current theatrical horror films (with a few notable exceptions...) but THE DESCENT gives me hope that horror audiences are still interested in seeing some good ol' "blood n' guts" with their horror films, and that these films can still be intelligent and well-done. Although this film has not yet been released theatrically in the U.S., I hear it's coming (although I'm sure it will be chopped to death...) and this is one that I would recommend to any real horror fan.
Sarah and her friends are extreme sports enthusiasts who enjoy activities like rafting and caving. When Sarah's husband is the victim of a brutal accident and killed (in a scene that "jump-starts" the film right in the first few minutes...), she has a hard time coping with the loss. Cut to 1 year later and Sarah's friends determine that it's time to help get Sarah back on her feet and into some of her old activities. They plan an "all-girls" trip to explore a cave system in the Appalachian mountains. Little do any of the other girls know, that Juno, the organizer of the expedition, has planned a trip into a previously uncharted cave system in the hopes of claiming a little fame and recognition. This obviously isn't such a smart idea for a group of novice spelunkers, and things start to go downhill pretty quickly. Along with such setbacks as injuries, cave-ins, and the mental stress that the girls undergo when they realize that they may be in a life-or-death struggle just to get out of the caves - we then become aware that the group of explorers are not the only ones currently inhabiting the caves - and this is where the film REALLY takes off...
THE DESCENT is nearly perfect in almost every way. The tension and claustrophobia of being trapped in an unknown cave system is palpable. The gore comes pretty hot and heavy in the second half of the film, and the ending of the film is appropriately surprising and bleak, without being corny. Another big plus in my book is that the "creature" FX aren't over-the-top and don't rely on much, if any CGI. When I first heard that THE DESCENT was a "creature" film, I was kinda worried because I feel that those types of films have gone severely down-hill with the advent of the over-use of CGI...but THE DESCENT doesn't fall into that category. Some of the acting isn't the greatest but it doesn't really detract from the film overall, and some seem to think that the first half of the film is slow. Personally, I think that the early sequences in the caves are a great "tension-builder" as things go from bad-to-worse, and right when you think it can't go any lower, the audience is clued in to the existence of the other "inhabitants" of the caves and and all hell breaks loose. THE DESCENT is an excellent film that shouldn't be ignored. Highly recommended - 9/10