Overrated

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2006)

I liked this better than "Dog Soldiers", and I think Neil Marshall is a great talent in the horror genre. I look forward to seeing more movies by him. However, I think both Dog Soldiers and The Descent are problematic as horror movies. There's no real supernatural feel. The shocks are not scary. Japanese and south eastern Asian horror (such as "the eye") make scary shocks. The move by Hollywood to just try and copy what they couldn't have done themselves is pathetic, I think. The descent is a British movie, and it shows. It is better than a lot of recent American horror. However, my main problem with the descent except that it has little or no suspense is that the plot is devoid of logic. What is the connection between the accident and the descent into the cave with the monsters? Let me tell you: THERE IS NO CONNECTION. Thus the plot is not making sense. You can analyze this as much as you want to and try and see connections but take my word for it: there isn't any. It's just some kind of plot decoy which in the end didn't seem to fit although it might have been intended. Moreover, whereas the accident is exciting and seems to make sense in terms of horror, all the non-horror things in this movie is just so borderline superfluous that it sort of ruins the occasional splendid elements of successful horror.