The Descent is on par with Carpenter's Thing and Scott's Alien

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2006)

Neil Marshall. Remember the name; he just might be the next John Carpenter. Personally I've never heard of the man. Four years ago he directed a low budget horror flick called Dog Soldiers. Apparently it must have been a pretty good show, because the sick minds over at Lionsgate gave the dude some quick cash and went on to create one of the years most intense and startling horror-thrillers that manages to easily dodge most of the silly and lame clichés that often plague most modern day horror films. The Decent echoes touches of Ridley Scott's Alien, Brian De Palma's Carrie and John Carpenter's The Thing, and does so in brilliant fashion. I say if you're gonna steal, you might as well steal from the best. The Descent is essentially the polar opposite of Alexander Aja's remake of The Hills Have Eyes; it takes place in a wet and confined climate, deep underground and in total darkness. It's a terrific setting and used amazingly well. This is what I image last year's The Cave was trying to do with a PG-13 rating. Well The Decent most certainly earns it's R-rating and doesn't hold back on any of the blood n' guts. And with a running time of just under a hundred minutes it certainly packs a good, solid punch. This is the stuff classics are made of.
The Descent is about a group of six young women who love exploring and adventuring. One of them is still recovering from a horrible accident that occurred over a year ago. Her friend's think she needs to get out, and go on a cave diving exploration trip, hoping that it'll help her take her mind off things and help ease her tension. Yeah, right! As you can tell from the previews there's something not quite so normal about these caves; there's something very evil and terrifying living deep beneath the surface, and worst yet... it's hungry. That's all I'm going to spill on The Descent; it's a film that is a much more effective journey if you don't know what'll happen next. The direction is masterful, the music is gripping and yes, the scares will have you popping' outta your seat! If you like your horror movies with plenty of blood and gore, tons of suspense and extreme tension and a bunch of girls kickin' some serious ass than I'm sure you'll get a real scream out of The Descent. I would easily rank this as one of the scariest and most intense horror films in years. I seriously didn't expect a horror film to match (or even exceed) this year's The Hills Have Eyes, but I was dead wrong. Definitely see this one on the big screen, because it certainly won't feel the same seeing it for the first time on DVD.