Has its ups and downs

Rating: 7/10 (18 August 2006)

Down is the appropriate direction with respect to the ambitions of British cinema since the heady days of 4 weddings and a funeral, when it seemed that combined commercial and critical success was within the grasp of UK film production. The followed the days of lottery funding and a slough of boring dramas and horror movies with poor production standards and less imagination. The Descent represents the recovery position for any non-Potter/Grant/Dench film - a tight original concept on a low budget. The originality is represented in the setup of an all-female potholing movie, where the characters use the physical risks and challenges to offset the barely disguised emotional tensions between them. The makes for a tense and delicious first hour as the girls struggle into the depths of an undiscovered cave space. The cinematography explores a range of phobic territory - from the claustrophobia of a crawlspace to the dark unknown of a cavern entrance, and succeeds in generating a great empathy with the immediate predicament of the characters. Developing any kind of emotional attachment is not so easy, as most of the women are outwardly brittle, stoic and engimatic - a bit like men really. half way in it seems The Descent is going to be a rather special thriller, with the natural environment providing the menace. Then, rather abruptly, the film introduces a horde of cannibalistic troglodytes, who set out to devour each of the party in turn a la Jason/Freddy - fill in your favourite monster movie. It's not that the grand guignol is that bad - and there is the ultimate gore moment in terms of a bath of blood - and there is some message about primality being made. It just seems a prosaic way of releasing the tension built up exquisitely in the first half by turning it into a haunted house movie. As you would expect there is an unexpected ending, but the film had gone off the boil for me about 20 minutes before its inevitable shock.