A nasty little film... for all the right reasons

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2008)

It ticks all the boxes for me in a horror film;
-->It's tense -->It relies on atmosphere (to an extent) over shock value -->When shock value is used, it's used inventively and unexpectedly (Sarah's partner and child's death at the beginning made me jump like you wouldn't believe - a rarity for me!) -->The score enhances, rather than detracts, from the on-screen action -->You genuinely care about the fates of the characters -->And hell - it's British! :)
Without giving too much away, The Descent is a remorseless horror (like Aja's remake of The Hills Have Eyes) that takes you on a nightmarish - and largely plausible - trip into a cave network in the Appalachian Mountains.
This, along with the directors earlier work 'Dog Soldiers' and '28 Days Later' are spearheading a charge by young(ish) British directors into the world of Horror, injecting fresh life into a genre previously dominated by a stagnant Hollywood content to make Slashers/remakes of far superior Asian films. And that can be only a good thing.
It's magnificently paced, superbly lit and well-acted. What more needs to be said? Go watch it!