Entertaining and well made reality-challenged psychological horror film

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2007)

It is very refreshing to see a horror film which not only respects but reveres its female characters and allows each to have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. The Descent involves a group of girl friends who get together once a year or so to have an outdoor adventure, whether it be spelunking, riding rapids, or something less death-defying. A year after Sarah's (Shauna McDonald) husband and daughter are killed, they get together near Juno's (Natalie Mendoza) cabin in the Appalachians to explore a cave.
The "Descent" of the film is not just the descent into the cave, but a metaphorical allusion to hell, madness, and death. As things start to go wrong, friendship, and perhaps sanity, begin to rip apart.
Setting is very important to The Descent, and though a bit unrealistic, the cave environment is very nicely detailed and well portrayed. The cinematography is excellent. Tension and horror are achieved without buckets of blood and gore, and the film suggests much more than it shows - to great effect. The film is tightly directed and very well edited - not surprising from Paul Marshall given his credentials.
The story descends somewhat beyond the initial forays into unreality, but this is done with a level of insinuated ambiguity which implies something important about the plot. Avoiding a spoiler, I can not elaborate further... But anybody expecting a documentary from this film deserves what they get.
A great deal of credit for making The Descent the success that it is should go to the ensemble cast. The two leads - Mendoza and McDonald give stellar performances, but the entire cast deserves credit for making this film stand apart from the pack. The extras on the DVD indicate that Marshall gave each of the women considerable space with which to flesh out their characters and it is suggested that some liberties were taken with the script as well. If this is so, then the creativity, talent, and intelligence of this bunch should not go overlooked. Each character is beautiful, beautifully developed, and beautifully played - and each in her very own way.
The Descent borrows a bit from films such as Alien, Pitch Black and even Lord of the Rings (you will understand this when you see the film), but still, it is several steps above the average horror film.
Highly recommended.