THE DESCENT : Incredibly Scary... Please Have All Horror Movies Made By Foreign Directors!

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2006)

THE DESCENT
Finally, for the first time since 28 DAYS LATER a horror movie has come along that filled me with genuine fear. THE DESCENT is hands down the best horror movie released in recent years, and though it features a great deal of gore and violence, it refreshingly does not draw it's largest scares from these elements. THE DESCENT is a brilliantly shot film that captures the idea of claustrophobic insanity perfectly. Perhaps it's no coincidence that the two best horror films of the past decade have had their origins outside of the United States, and it's time for American film-makers to look past the "slasher" clichés.
THE DESCENT tells the story of a group of friends who have experienced an enormous tragedy just one summer ago. One year later, in an attempt to move on, a group of females choose to go on an expedition traveling through an ominous cave located in the middle of nowhere. It starts out as planned, a vacation that re-affirms friendships and shows signs of new hope in their lives. However, as they go deeper and deeper into the earth, things get more and more terrifying.
THE DESCENT leaves the remainder of it's story open for interpretation. As the girls begin to realize they are not alone in the caves, it is not 100% clear as to whether the bat creatures that hunt them are real or if they are representations of one character's slow descent into insanity. However, either way you interpret this (and I still haven't made up my mind), director Neil Marshall keeps his film constantly frightening.
For me personally, the scariest part of THE DESCENT comes before any monsters arrive. Through brilliant lighting, camera-work, and direction, this film manages to makes it's audience feel the claustrophobia to an uncomfortable extent. The sequences in which the girls must crawl on their elbows through passageways that have dust constantly falling from the roof made me physically uncomfortable. Often times we see nothing more then the beam of light from a flashlight and the jagged rocks it passes over. And yet, despite the limited options for scenery, Marshall manages to keep the film feeling alive. It never drones on or gets boring b/c of the small environment, instead it thrives.
Then when the monsters do appear, Marshall lets the blood fly. However, it is never the blood and gore that offer the real thrills. While films like SAW and HOSTEL relied completely on disgusting their audience to incite fear, THE DESCENT merely uses the gore to emphasize the terror, not create it. What's also very cool is the amount of references you can find in THE DESCENT to many of the greatest horror films in history, including:
THE SHINING - as the girls drive up the mountain to the cave entrance
CARRIE - as one character rises from a pool of blood, it's unmistakably similar to the prom scene
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - the use of night-vision goggles while in the caves
28 DAYS LATER - waking in the hospital in the very beginning of the movie
There were more but I can't remember them too well b/c my mind was so engrossed in the movie. Clocking in at a brisk 99 minutes, THE DESCENT packs the kind of punch far too many horror films don't. It scares it's audience while also engrossing them into a gripping emotional story (not to mention the fact that the cast offers strong performances). Also, it can be enjoyed as either a mindless thrill ride, or an incredibly complex examination of mental insanity.
It's a shame the film isn't finding a larger audience here in the states while films like WHEN A STRANGER CALLS can be the equivalent of a cinematic fart and still open at #1. However, I would place my bets on the fact that THE DESCENT will go on to continually find a larger audience in subsequent years... perhaps even becoming a cult film of sorts. It's simply too good to not be remembered as an incredible horror film.
... A- ...