A tad overrated, but still a great movie

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2008)

"The Descent" is a slightly overrated if still enjoyable creature feature.
**SPOILERS**
After a terrible accident, friends Sarah, (Shauna Macdonald) Juno, (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) Beth, (Alex Reid) Rebecca, (Saskia Mulder) and Sam, (MyAnna Buring) decide to meet together to forget about the incident. When their friend Holly, (Nora-June No one) shows up, it's decided to turn it into a spelunking trip once they find a nice cave nearby. As they descend into the cave deeper, they suddenly learn that they've been tricked and are heading into a newly opened cave that has never been explored before. Stuck inside when a cave-in strands them inside, they try to find a new way out and are instead stuck in the dimly-lit tunnels with different fears about the situation putting them on the edge of their sanity. During their quest, they realize that they're stuck with a race of cannibalistic dwellers who figure them intruders and voraciously attack them, making them even more desperate to get out of the caves.
The Good News: This one here wasn't that bad at all and had some good points to it. The fact that this one has most of it's time inside a series of caves which are on their own incredibly creepy, well-designed and perfectly capable of making up the required set-pieces in the film. These scenes are absolutely flawless, being appropriately dark and untraveled enough to appear that it manages to get some incredible tension out of these scenes. All of the cave-diving and exploration scenes are just perfection, as the lighting is just perfect to get that darkened, underground look and the design of the caves themselves are just excellent. They look incredibly realistic and original, giving them some very impression locations that are molded well with the action presented to give it something to be grateful of. The attacks here are great, as the creatures aren't that imposing but get their threatening nature from how their attacks are coordinated, simply rushing in and slashing and then using lightning speed to retreat or prepare for the next wave if detoured away. Their initial attack is a thing of beauty, making it due to the darkness of the time, the spectacular location it chooses and the voracity of what they're doing. That leads into another big area, their really brutal and gory encounters. There's a lot of flesh-ripping and tearing, some amputations, bites to most areas of the body as well as a brutal spike pierced through the neck. There's also the damage done to the creatures, which makes it pretty brutal and graphic when it wants to be. The last thing it gets right is a superb sequence at the end where the characters are forced to proceed in total darkness using the video screen from a camera to find a way out of danger, and this is played up magnificently and is one of the most original and creative scenes in the film genre. It's a high point in the film, which is part of all these that it gets right.
The Bad News: This one here has surprisingly more flaws than expected. The main one here is the terribly slow-going opening to this one. It takes a really long time in the beginning to get going on the cave-diving due to a really long sequence where they're sitting around doing nothing for what seems like minutes on end with nothing to do for the entire duration. It's a seemingly endless parade of banter that really only seems funny to them is at times painful to sit through just hearing them go off on rants about whatever and hearing them all laugh at it when it's really not. It continues on for so much of the beginning of the film that it goes for what seems like forever and it makes for a period of time where there's nothing of interest in the scene. At times, the darkness in the cave is something to get over, since at times it works but others it's completely annoying and hurtful towards the film. That, coupled with the jump-cutting during the scenes makes them somewhat flawed. The other main flaw here is that the creatures look absolutely terrible. They look exactly like a small person covered in white skin and given fangs, which are absolutely the opposite of what fear-inducing creatures should be. It's quite hard to take them as serious threats when they don't look imposing at all, and are a really terrible design that won't get much attention. Otherwise, this one here is a really entertaining film.
The Final Verdict: A little slow-going at the beginning is more than made-up for with a fun and exciting second-half, making this one really watchable. Give it a shot if interested in the subject matter, have a preference for these kinds of films or are in the mood for a classy creature-feature, otherwise heed caution with it.
Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language