The battle of the six vs. The Darkness

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2006)

(This movie definitely made me think twice about ever going cave-diving!!!)
More than a few critics this year have hailed "The Descent" as one of the scariest horror movies of the last 10 years. For once, they're right. I've seen a fair share of "Saw" (another Lionsgate franchise) over the last two years, but "The Descent" is in a whole other ball park by itself. Claustrophobia? Darkness? Gore? Nasty monsters? You bet. "The Descent" has it all.
The story is that six adrenaline-charged females are trapped underground by a cave-in. With nothing around them but darkness, they strive to stay alive long enough to find the light. Unknown to the women, something is lurking within the darkness, just out of sight, watching their every move. And it soon becomes a battle for survival as the women are hunted down and eviscerated by some really nasty creepy-crawlers.
The director of "The Descent" is Neil Marshall, the Brit responsible for 2002's ultra-bloody werewolf adventure "Dog Soldiers." Marshall made a name for himself with that picture, and "The Descent" contains the same sense of wall-to-wall action as "Dog Soldiers," except that the action here is literal, much rather than figurative. The gore factor is extremely up there (perhaps even more extended in the original unedited version) and those creepy-crawlers I mentioned? The first image of them is sure to stick with you; for once in a long time, the protagonists are terrorized by creatures that are actually scary.
Many of the females are pretty, and tough, and able to handle themselves in hand-to-hand combat with the creatures, and so the body count on both sides sort of evens out. So, "The Descent" sort of turns into a battle royal toward the end. These women are strong, giving their characters that extra kick of girl-power, and alas, there's no gratuitous nudity here although one girl is seen taking a shower, and the movie doesn't pause to give us an excuse for T + A. It's all about survival, and seeing what's ahead, or as far as the beam of your flashlight will go.
Though the movie is set in the United States, many of the actresses do lousy jobs of masking their European accents. (Maybe it would've been better if Marshall instead kept the horror in Europe? It still would have given "The Descent" an exotic appeal that doesn't conform to shoddy American standards).
"The Descent" is one tension-filled and nasty horror masterpiece. Just pray for daylight if you ever get trapped underground with nasty creepy-crawlers.
10/10