A Little Scary, But I Personally Didn't Like It

Rating: 5/10 (13 August 2006)

Let me start out by saying that hardcore horror fans who are looking for a somewhat scary movie will love this film. But I, personally, did not like it, but I'll try to explain the film enough so you will know whether it's for you or not.
I am a fan of most horror movies, whether they scare me or not. Even when I enjoy most recent horror movies, I'm disappointed that I was not truly scared by it, yet I enjoyed the story enough to watch it again. To me, the story, acting, directing, and effects are more important than actual scares.
"The Descent" was getting pretty good reviews and it did look scary, so I decided to go see it. The results were mixed and it took several days of thinking afterwards to come to an opinion.
I thought this movie did have some really scary moments. The movie does a great job of setting up a moody atmosphere and creating a sense of dread, well before the women enter the cave. The acting is pretty decent as well. The creatures, which I think the director named Crawlers in an interview, are scary as hell. In most films, it's scarier when the monsters are not really seen but in this movie they remain scary even when we get a good glimpse of them. In one scene, in which a woman gets stuck in a tunnel, I was truly freaked out just because I know I would be panicking in that situation as well.
However, I did not like the movie as far as the story goes. There's not too much too it at all: a group of women go in a cave, get lost, and are killed off by a meat-hungry species. I thought this was more suited to an episode of "The X-Files" rather than a movie that was as long as this, and it took way too long for them to get into the cave. The characters are also all unlikable except for Juno, so I did not feel pity for any of them as they were killed off.
So this is why I rate it five stars. It really was the scariest movie I've seen in years - although it was not terrifying by any means - and it was not scared to show gore. However, I was left feeling unsatisfied and I did not like the characters, and I have no desire to ever see this movie again, but I would recommend it to most hardcore movie fans, like I already stated.