Descent into madness

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2006)

When I read the synopsis for THE DESCENT, I thought to myself "This is just like THE CAVE, only with chicks (er, excuse me, an all-female cast)". Now, the concept of a bunch of hot-looking young women who are into extreme sports does sound appealing, but the real reason why I wanted to watch this movie was because I very much enjoyed director Neil Marshall's previous film DOG SOLDIERS. And let me say right away: Though I kinda liked THE CAVE, THE DESCENT is a far better movie. It has more suspense and is more realistic, to name only two things.
The plot maybe isn't extremely original but it is executed perfectly and the over-all structure is flawless. The opening-scene is very powerful and will make you go "Holy Sh!t?!?!". It grabs your attention. Once inside the cave Marshall starts building up tension, very slowly (and I do mean slowly). After about 50 minutes the action kicks in, and it's a real thrill-ride. All leading up to a clever and satisfying ending. Between all this madness there's even a nice twist in the plot concerning one of the character's background. In short: This movie grabs you, pulls you in and doesn't let go until the end-credits roll.
The middle-part of the movie feels more like a survival-movie (and that's a trick Marshall also uses in DOG SOLDIERS, blending genres), because everything you'd expect to go wrong while exploring a cave does indeed go wrong: Getting stuck & claustrophobia kicking in, a cave collapsing, crossing a ravine, breaking a leg (in a bloody-open-fracture kinda way),... And just when our six girls start to think that things couldn't possible get any worse, they find out the hard way that much bigger problems are lurking in the dark...
There's a lot of blood & gore in this movie, especially in the second half. The make-up effects are rather excellent and the Crawlers, with their scary noises, look real creepy. Only complaint is that they still looked a little too human (their bodies, that is, not their actions). Some scenes are digitally enhanced, but you barely notice it. The sets all look real and the lighting is cleverly used. For instance, when the group gets divided, Marshall uses different lighting (like green flares, red torches,...) to indicate which person you're looking at in order to avoid any confusion. Never at any moment does the lighting feel artificial, so it works. Even some of the jump-scenes actually work. The musical score's almost perfect, never too dominant but adding to the atmosphere and raising the movie to a higher level.
Neil Marshall clearly knows how to make good horror-movies and I strongly believe this director's going places. This is one of the best British horror-movies I've seen in a long time and one that proves once again that you don't need a big budget to make a good movie. So if you like violent horror, then go see this flick. And remember: Darkness won't kill you; what's in it will!