Great twist on dynamics of friendships and survival instincts

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2005)

This film is refreshingly different to most - although it contains traditional blood and guts/mutant monsters etc, it has quite an interestingly psychological twist on it - ie the relationship between the six friends. Although the girls' characters could have been developed more, frankly I think this film could have been pulled off without the 'crawlers' - I didn't find them at all scary, as they were idential to the 'creep' monster and too stereotypical. And you could never really see what they were doing to their victims. I think it would've worked to just play on the girls' breakdown of relationships, the emerging of their primeval survival instincts etc, just by having the rock-fall and then somehow making it that in order to survive they had to fight each other for the way out/food/water whatever and gradually lose all inhibitions as survival instinct kicks in.
I found the scene where Juno kills Beth the most disturbing. It was totally unexpected but really awful. What was really bad was the way hours later Beth was still alive and Sarah had to finish her off (surely she would have bled to death by then??) From then on juno did nothing to redeem herself- and it turns out she was sleeping with Sarah's husband before he was killed -what a bi*ch!! I thought this was a really good part of the plot and added depth to the film that, for example, creep totally lacked. There was no character development at all in creep, and frankly I didn't give a sh** about the main character in it as she was so unpleasant. It would've been good if Descent has developed the girls' friendships a bit more at the beginning to make the way they end up more chilling. For example at one point Sam says 'what about sarah' and rebecca says 'we can't wait for her,she's probably dead' which seems harsh but would've been more sinister if we had seen a real closeness between her and Sarah at the beginning.
I don't think all of the film was realistic eg Sarah stabs Juno in the leg to prevent her escape - a big turnaround for Sarah's personality! I know all your primal instincts would come out, but would she really resort to this? She must realise Juno didn't kill Beth on purpose, and if Sarah was so disgusted at Juno leaving Beth to die suggests she would hardly do the same thing to Juno!! If it was because of her husband, it seems slightly extreme!!! she could have just killed her rather than leave her for the crawlers! Sarah's dramatic change was questionable. It as also a bit dubious the way the girls fought off the crawlers, especially when J and Sarah were attacked by a group of them. The crawlers tore bodies apart -they would have just sunk their teeth into the girls' necks before they had a chance to fight!! It was hard to see what was happening, especially when Holly is killed and Juno then kills a crawler. And what did Sarah do to Holly's body to make her head fall off?? The bit when they climbed across the void -I didn't understand at all how they secured the lines, moved along etc. Was someone holding the rope at each end as each girl went across? If it was secured instead, how would it be secured tight enough at each end to take their weight?? I found it frustrating.
A lot of people criticised the ending but I think its very effective. When we see Sarah escape, burst out of the ground, run to the car and drive away, I had shivers down my spine because I could imagine myself there, and the need to get away would be so intense.I found it so creepy, half expecting the crawlers to appear, the fact it was so deserted and all her friends were dead inside the cave, the way it brings you back to the scene where they first arrive at the cave. Then she wakes up and realises she hasn't in fact escaped... she sees her daughter and stares at her with an insane smile as the crawlers close in...You know that basically she's f**ked...as the camera pans out you see she's come to another yawning void with no way to get to the other side and thus no way out. She is just waiting to be killed, but the fact she's pretty much lost the plot by now means she isn't afraid. I found this quite moving in a way, the little girl 'sees' her mum all bloody and just says 'Mummy', it's like she's comforting her and keeping her distracted.
Basically I loved this film. it was well-paced, brilliantly acted and really creepy.