Remind me not to crawl in any caves!

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2005)

The trailer promised little and offered less. Thirty seconds in a parade of snapshots promising more of the generic horror films that seem to be swamping our screens at the moment. But having sat through Neil Marshall's second film  a tale of humanity pushed beyond its limits and into its most gruesome instinctive self, I have been forced to tell myself once more never to believe the trailers.
The film is surprising for several reasons:- Firstly, it is a horror film about a group of women who do not a) do nothing but run around screaming or b) take their clothes off. There's not even a scene featuring people in their underwear having pillow fights. Secondly, It's a horror film that's been released in the last year that a) isn't a remake of a successful Japanese film and b) doesn't have Dakota Fanning in it.
Marshall explains that he wanted to make horror films that are entirely for adults, and this film thoroughly deserves its 18 rating. The women loose their veneer of humanity faster than a rat up a drainpipe and quite willingly become brutal killing machines fairly early on. The scare factor is increased somewhat by their attackers taking almost human form  making it even more unwholesome when the women celebrate and seem to relish killing their enemies, a part of the narrative at its most gruesome when Sarah (as played excellently by Shauna MacDonald with a "Creepy Carrie" expression that would make Sissy Spacek blush), the woman who is still mourning for the loss of her husband and child a year before is attacked by and kills a child crawler in the cave. The movie also smacks of a well put together action film with the show being stolen by Natalie Jackson Mendoza who plays the tough cookie with something to prove  Juno. Who chops up and kicks her way through monsters in a way that forces the words "you go girl" from your mouth before you even knew they were there.
Marshall is a technically skilled film maker and the tone is almost playfully set up with the beautiful extreme long shots of the vaguely threatening landscape (in a style deliberately reminiscent of Kubrick's "The Shining") contrasting entirely with the later fast paced low light close up action within the cave. Probably the most irritating part of the film is the excessive use of choppy editing throughout the fighting sequences which seems to act to distract from the action on screen and leaves the audience feeling slightly unwell, (like they've just sat through Blair Witch again), but this is, thankfully, limited. He does, however, use some fabulous visual tricks to overcome the lack of a natural light sources below, by eerily illuminating the cave with flares and the piercing spotlight of torches which maintain an air of authenticity throughout.
The British have always made good horror films, from the success of the Hammer films to Don't Look Now. You can make a scary film with a low budget, about three lights and some good story telling and The Descent keeps up this tradition. Overall the film left me feeling upset, disturbed and desperate never to go potholing, which I think is a measure of its success. The fact that I actually grew to like the characters before they were maliciously picked off one by one is a credit to the writer / director and the injection of some good old fashioned human tragedy to the proceedings lifts The Descent slightly closer to (although by no means amongst) the acclaimed movies of the seventies that it so wishes to join and far away from the mass produced rubbish of Hollywood.