A bloody good scare.

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2006)

The Descent - Six women go spelunking in an unknown cavern. But the cavern is not all it seems, and their survival skills are put to the test.
Let me start off by saying that I do not often go to see horror films in theater (The last one would be Silent Hill, which I had mixed feelings about) because I find them to be lackluster in general. Let me say that this one is by far one of the scariest movies in the past few years. My friends were not as scared by it as I, but they still admitted that it was a fine piece of work.
I don't want to spoil anything for you, btu suffice to say that the film is content to play out the "Jaws" element for the first half hour and let us get to know these women better. The casting, which is by far the folly of your average horror flick, was well done and these six girls are believable (for the most part. Who goes into an unknown cave in the first place?) and in numerous scenes, applaudable for their actions.
The scares at first are psychological, playing out almost everyone's fears of claustrophobia, heights, and the dark, all done, in a very documentary-esquire way of filming, but not like Blair Witch where the cameras motion itself is the nauseating thing. There is also a great deal of gore. This is hardly for people with weak constitutions or bladders.
My friends and I were unable to agree on the level of scaritude (if I may invent a phrase here). They argued that the movie put too much into the sound effects so that even if you knew something was going to happen it was still a huge jump when it did happen because of the level of sound used. I think this worked to the movie's advantage more than it's detriment, as the result was more shocking and frightening.
The film never clarifies why any of this is happening, but I rather liked that it was unencombered by copious exposition.
This is not only a frightening and well done piece of film, but it has put me off of spelunking for life. This is a better and (strangely) more believable piece of work than than Saw and Bostel. For horror afficianados, one not to miss. I give it a B+