Thrill seekers be advised...

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2009)

The Descent is written and directed by Neil Marshall. It stars Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring and Nora Jane No one. Music is by David Julyan and cinematography by Sam McCurdy.
A group of adventurous ladies are always up for the challenges of nature, be it water rafting, climbing or cave exploring. When they go potholing in some out of the way Appalachian venue, they find a little more than they bargained for. In fact it's looking unlikely that any of them will survive the trip...
Neil Marshall first came to horror fan's attention with the bloody and hugely funny Dog Soldiers in 2002, here his follow up forgoes humour in favour of an assault on the viewers senses. Chiefly what Marshall has done is craft a picture that plays on the basic fears of your average human being, the dark, confined spaces, and yes, things that literally do go bump in the night, all nicely bundled up in the most appropriate of subterranean settings. But to purely label The Descent as a shallow popcorn horror piece would be a gross case of misdirection, for Marshall has given the characters a back story to work from, we as the viewers get introductions to these game and able ladies, interesting character dynamics serving for preparation, so when they get down in the dark, we are with them too.
Marshall knows his horror onions, he knows what works and he know what doesn't, after grabbing our attention quite early in the piece, he serenely goes about knitting the strands together to fully form his movie, he then of course knows that once we are in the caves, reality is the key, and here's Marshall's masterstroke. His use of lighting is first class, there is no light down there, we have to rely on Miners Helmet lamps, glow sticks, flares and even the video-cam viewfinder. Contrast the lighting work of that with The Cave that was released the same year, The Cave is lit up like Narnia on a snowy morning for crying out loud! Marshall is also well served by his sound department, trickles of water blending in with the sound of bodies scraping against rock, and of course something, somewhere, shuffling in the dark
The Descent ranks up with the very best of British horror movies, its build up and execution is first rate, and it pulls a neat trick of having an all female cast, of which Alex Reid and Shauna Macdonald are particularly impressive, the latter of which producing one of the best shows of grief shown by a British actress in many a blood red moon. American audiences have proved to be indifferent to it, though they have not been helped by having a different (weaker) ending to the excellently thought provoking one that Britain got. But a couple of nice homages aside (the score for example is a direct lift from Carpenter's The Thing), that are Marshall's want, The Descent is as fresh as a daisy; that is if your daisies are cloaked in terror! A brilliant horror picture, the most significant British horror film since The Wicker Man. 10/10