Thrilling story and setting, but stumbles at the end. 6/10

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2009)

The Descent is a thrilling tale involving six adventurous women on an underground caving expedition, who run into serious trouble mid way when they encounter some vicious subterranean creatures.
The film pays obvious homages to Alien and Predator, and to it's credit the first half of the film is filled with slow-build tension, just like the aforementioned greats of the sci-fi/horror genre. All six of the characters are given just enough screen time for you to learn who is who, which is vital for building up the scares, yet something that many other such films fail to do.
* SPOILER WARNING * Sadly, despite being a huge fan of this genre, and sitting through most of the movie with sweaty palms and marveling at the great sets, minimal CGI and overall claustrophobia of it all, the film was undone for me in the final quarter.
I was actually sitting there thinking "What??", when two of the characters turn on each other rather than face the menace around them. I won't elaborate on "why" this happens, except to say the reasons are simply not strong enough. The victim in this instance is simply not "evil" enough, and no amount of back story justification can excuse her death. In fact she's not evil at all. Just irresponsible.
It's an atrocious end that rips all the sympathy from the "hero", and utterly flattens a film that was heading for 8/10.
Instead, The Descent stumbles badly like a Olympic hurdler who was leading, only to finish 4th - outside the medals. It's a shame. I can only hope Neil Marshall will try this genre once more, and get everything right. Perhaps watch Aliens and witness how the Ripley character is equally strong, sympathetic and heroic? Even a dark ending needs to have a silver lining, albeit at least a moral one.