Six women, one cave, plenty of nasty creatures and lots of blood, well why not?

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2008)

I heard lots of positive comments for this one, so I decided to take a look. Why? Cause I like horror movies. My expectations were low cause it's been a while since I watched a really good horror movie of newer date. So I sat to watch this movie on my computer, all alone, in the dark. "The Descent" starts like any other movie and actually in the first 50 minutes (without nasty creatures) we are meeting all the characters involved in this movie. Six women who all love dangerous adventures, like rafting on wild rivers (beginning), climbing on high mountains (that picture) and finally going into caves. So our six ladies decide to go to this cave not knowing what might be in there. They all agreed to go on a trip because of Sarah, who had a terrible road accident a year ago in which she lost her husband and daughter. Sarah needs change and all other characters need adrenaline so the adventure can begin. But Juno, the bravest of them all, decides to lead them into cave that no one went in before.
Neil Marshall directed this one after the success of "Dog Soldiers" and he's a classic example for the fact that good horrors could be made even if you don't have extravagant budget. What Marshall brings in new in his movie is great way of telling a story. First he starts slowly so he can introduce characters. Accident that happened to Sarah, friendship between Sarah, Juno and Beth and finally preparations for the trip. When they finally come into the cave strange things doesn't start to happen quickly. And then blast. Marshall hits us with that creatures, music, atmosphere and on top of all, with his directing. It is absolutely amazing how Marshall manged to film all that scenes in dark. Most of the movie happens in a cave and there isn't many light but Marshall succeeds on that field and he proves that one European horror can easily beat all those new American crappy horrors (there are few exceptions).
Maybe at one point you will find this movie to bloody, that everything that happens to main characters lacks sense but I think that you can either like or dislike this movie. There is no middle. One thing you have to admit: directing was great, atmosphere was fine and gives you plenty of room to think about it. From Juno's accidental killing of one of the characters to the very end when Sarah stays alone in the cave and when she creates the picture of her dead daughter; and of course was Sarah to cruel to Juno. My favorite part was the ending, cause it was simply great to watch Sarah's dream and then the reality. This is nothing new but it's a great way to end this movie.
Universal message of this movie is that evil cannot be destroyed and that caver is not a good profession, at least not in a cave that no man visited before. Or it did, but they stayed there forever!