I really wanted to like this one

Rating: 4/10 (5 March 2015)

"The Descent" is a horror movie I really wanted to like. I heard all of this great stuff about it, including many people, average Joes and critics alike calling it one of the best horror movies of the 21st Century. After watching it, I have to ask myself if I missed something or if everyone else was looking at things that weren't there.
Even though this film is getting such a low grade from me, I'm not angry that I spent time watching a movie I ended up disliking. All of the lead actresses were good and I can't fault director and writer Neil Marshall that much, either. While I think the movie had some pretty big story and character flaws, I get the feeling that Marshall had great pride in what he was doing and a great idea and just miscalculated because, as far as I can tell, his directing and writing isn't bad.
You also can't fault the cinematography or the set design for this movie. Before entering the cave, the audience is treated to some wide shots of the forest and open areas. When the six girls enter the cavern, the camera is pressed up close to their face, giving off a sense of claustrophobia, especially when compared to the wide open shots we'd seen earlier. The sets are also believable as a real cavern while the darkness helps play to the horror element by allowing the only light to come from the girls' headlamps, glow sticks, flares, etc.
While I did have some positive things to say about the movie, I feel that they are somewhat superficial when compared to the problems I found with the movie. Let's start at the way beginning with the death of Sarah's (Shauna Macdonald) husband (Oliver Milburn) and daughter (Molly Kayll). From that opening, you'd think it'd have some effect on the story or characters. Not really. Sarah sees glimpses of her daughter in the cave and hears her laughter at one point, but that's not even three minutes worth of footage. Allof that could have been cut out, take out the opening with the car crash, and you'd still have the same movie. The only thing you'd have to change is a few lines of dialogue and take out a few scenes. For what is one of the most important scenes in the movie, it really doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things.
Next off, these characters are interchangeable. Granted, Juno (Natalie Mendoza) has some amount of character, but the others are flat and lack personality. Considering the story revolves around these six characters trying to escape from an undiscovered cavern while there's no help on its way, you'd think there should be something to make you care about the characters. Granted, there's about a five minute scene introducing (if that's what you'd call it) the six girls who will be on the spelunking trip, but not much is established during that part. Once they enter the cave, it's six boring characters with no personality trying to escape. I understand we're supposed to want them to escape because they're the characters we're following, but it's very hard to care about their outcome when they don't have anything that sets them apart or makes them interesting.
My last major gripe is with how the horror element works in this movie. I already said above that the close camera shots on the characters while they're in the cave gives off a sense of claustrophobia which can make us feel uncomfortable, that's about it. The movie starts off by suggesting some sort of psychological horror story due to the death of Sarah's family. Then, when the characters get stuck in the cave in, it becomes a survival movie with the characters in a claustrophobic environment. Then, it becomes a creature feature complete with characters running around the caverns and fighting small Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings"- esque creatures with their climbing equipment. The movie feels like it doesn't know what kind of horror movie it wants to be. Granted, it could be all three if it pulled it off, but it doesn't. The psychological family angle is only present for about five minutes of screen time, and the second we're introduced to the creatures, the cavern opens up to be large enough for out heroes to dash around and fight monsters, getting rid of the sense of claustrophobia.
I can see why this movie got the level of appraise that it did and I do think there were some good ideas and talented people attached to it, but I think it was lacking in a lot of places. I will end this by saying while I didn't like "The Descent", it's movie I wish I had liked and I might revisit someday to see if my view on it has changed.