A Minority Opinion: "The Descent" just isn't the masterpiece of modern horror that it's made out to be... In fact, it's quite basic, bland and left a sour taste in my mouth.

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2013)

Back in 2006, there was a major burst of hype surrounding the British horror film "The Descent." Boasting strong critical acclaim and a great word-of-mouth, many were even so bold as to claim it was one of the greatest horror films since "The Exorcist." The hype was inescapable for a horror fan like myself, and I eagerly anticipated this supposed modern masterpiece of terror and psychological horror.
Finally it was opening day here in the states. My best friend and I trekked the two-mile walk to our local theater, bought our tickets and plopped down in our seats. Utterly prepared to be thrilled, chilled and left in awe after all that we had heard.
Two hours later, stumbling from the theater, we didn't say a word for a few minutes. Then my friend quietly interjected a thought: "I didn't like it." I nodded, finally bursting out what I had been thinking since the credits began to role: "Yeah... it wasn't anywhere near as good as everyone was saying." The next half-hour, as we strolled back to my house, we analyzed the film, discussing its uneven use of violence, its reliance on clichés, its messy metaphors... We just couldn't find the quality needed to justify the near-constant praise we had heard sung for so many months before its release.
And it really was a disappointment. I was a fan of director Neil Marshall's excellent "Dog Soldiers", and for what its worth, the film does deliver some exquisitely well-done set-pieces and gives us some decently developed characters. But it wasn't enough. And to be honest... it wasn't any deeper, more developed or more unique than any other create-feature film I had seen in recent history. Heck, I'd go so far as to say it was one of the more bland and basic creature-features I've ever seen, since it really isn't dark or oppressive enough to be memorable, nor is it fun enough to warrant multiple viewings. It just sort of... "exists" as "just another horror flick."
We follow a group of six women who travel overseas to go on a spelunking adventure in North Carolina. Our main focus is Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), a woman left scarred from the tragic (and brutally violent) death of her husband and daughter in a car accident sometime earlier. However, the trip takes a dark turn when the group becomes desperately lost in an unknown cave system following a cave-in. Adding to the tension, they also realize the dark, twisted caverns are home to a group of humanoid, cave-dwelling creatures who soon begin to attack them.
The cast is actually very good, in particularly Macdonald, who brings a lot of emotion, pathos and strength to her role. And to the credit of director Marshall's script, each of the women is generally well- developed and defined as a character. Although perhaps not quite as much as I'd like. Especially as in retrospect, it's hard to remember anything about most of the characters.
The direction is also fairly solid. Particularly during earlier sequences in the cave system (before the introduction of the creatures, called "crawlers"), which are fantastic, claustrophobic and very well- executed sequences. However, everything before and after does suffer for me. An opening sequence pertaining to the death of Sarah's family feels overly exploitive in its cruel and borderline mean-spirited depiction of a woman's loss (including some schlock-tastic gore during the car-accident that felt unneeded and there just to force home how awful it really is), and once the creatures are introduced, the direction does begin to feel a little too basic and even bland.
I also take issue with how much the film does rely on clichés, tropes and conventions of not only horror, but film in general. It wasn't all that daring an effort. And it was the biggest problem I had, since you could pretty much guess what was going to happen at every twist and turn during the story.
To be honest, I just don't get the hype. The film at times felt like a halfway-decent "Aliens" knock-off, and at others just sort-of felt like a bigger budget version of an old SyFy channel original movie. It did nothing for me to justify its massive hype, nor did it feel original in any way. It was just an average horror film than felt basic and bland as a result of it being not all that notable. I honestly do think the hype that was built up in the US was because it was a foreign horror film, and they are generally given more lenient coverage by American critics than American horror films, simply because they are made outside of the Hollywood studio system. Because I guarantee if this was made by an American director with an American cast, it would not have achieved nearly as high a score as this film did.
I give "The Descent" a mediocre 5 out of 10. Give it a shot, since many people seem to enjoy it. But I wouldn't be surprised if more people start to see it from my perspective over time.