Thud, thud, thud,thud *heart attack*

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2007)

It's not everyday that I can show my 63-year-old, thru-the-roof-blood-pressure, light-hearted and weak-stomached dad a nasty horror movie.
But I remembered he liked Alien and can get into almost any story. So after being amazed by The Descent, I watched it again with him.
It's ever rarer that my dad would say "Haven't had thrills from a movie like this in ten years" after seeing a HORROR flick.
I was going to give a seven, but now seeing his reaction, I'm upgrading to a nice big eight.
WOW did this movie stun the hell out of me. As I have said in another review, a good horror movie is both horrific and thrilling. And this one sure did everything in between both terms, at one end and the other.
It's perfectly balanced. Some will spit of the fact that the movie takes a while to begin unwinding, but without the long "assembling of the situation", a viewer would not care as much. Not enough to actually follow the movie anyway.
See, the long beginning is perfect since the second half of the movie takes place in low-lit, red and greenish almost undecipherable sets. A viewer would not want to get thrown into this immediately without knowing the characters he's following.
This movie is simply brilliant in this regard.
Also, the fact that the "creatures" they come across are more human than the girls give them credit for is also very frightening. At some point, I even though one of the chicks might get to communicate or reason with one (Now this doesn't happen, and I'm happy I predicted wrong... this means the movie's plot wasn't very easy to predict) Additionally, I think the director did great by using the UK ending (the one where Sarah wakes up only to realize her relieving escape from the cave was only a dream) on the DVD version. This made me extremely frustrated and I actually complimented the director out-loud at the rolling credits by saying "You cunning, clever bastards!" Heartbeat; 165, sweat; about two liters, cigarettes; about 11 (yea, I smoke a lot when I get stressed) - This movie truly deserves this eight to the point where an eight point five would be more appropriate.
This movie film make me very thrilled and excite. High five.
Recommended to ANY horror/mass thrill/sci-fi fan. Specially those who liked Alien.
NOT recommended to the weak-stomached or the light-hearted, although even the above may force themselves to admit they really got into the story and loved it! (ie: my dad)
To all, have a nice day and watch this movie.