Down Into the Bowels of Hell

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2007)

One of the aspects I find interesting whenever I read reviews about certain movies is the fact that sometimes I'll see similar terms used to describe them, be it in plot, style, its high quality or dreadful mise en scene. Terms like "Hitchcockian" have become so intricately linked to a specific style of films the very mention of it brings forth images of a shower, crashing music, thrilling set pieces, blondes in danger, and irresistible suspense.
The term that keeps popping up here is "spelunking". It has nothing to do with the quality of THE DESCENT, which is high in thrills, but practically everyone seems to be using it like the word's existence depended on it. I dreaded reading any more about this movie because just the thought of viewing that odd word, which sounds like something speed freaks would take in order to come crashing down to a halt (well, at least to me), would make me yip.
So let's see: the definition of what it means to 'spelunk' isn't being the action a fat lady takes when she missteps and comes crashing down a flight of stairs, landing in an extremely awkward position somewhere between the radiator and the boiler in the basement. Spelunking (and this, the third time I write it): a person who goes exploring a cave as a hobby. Okay. That being out of the way, I can say I finally know what the hell that strange, whiskery word means, and I can move on into what the movie THE DESCENT is about.
So. Six women, of which several have some unfinished business, go into a dark place deep underground. It doesn't bother them in the least that there's a deer with its throat ripped clear off. They want to go exploring and that's that. What they ignore is that -- surprise, surprise -- there's Something Down There, And It Ain't Nice.
Neil Marshall has made himself quite a picture with THE DESCENT. He takes an old, old, Really Old premise and making it nearly a war movie where the women are more than ready to do battle instead of do the weak flail of arms and yelling help in the hopes that Prince Charming will come and save them. There isn't a single weak woman in the bunch -- these might as well be Amazons from a different tribe, since the only significant male in the bunch is killed cleanly off during the film's introduction sequence -- itself gruesome as it is brutal and brief. Shauna MacDonald, as the emotionally and mentally frail Sarah, carries the weight of her baggage through the entire run and evolves into quite a character.
As for fear factor, THE DESCENT is relentless once it takes off. It creeps and creeps and creeps until what seems to be a hallucination in Sarah's eyes explodes in vicious ferocity. This is a pretty sharp horror movie that is awash in gore and frights and uses them to their full advantage and even when the story moves in flatly predictable ways, you will be on the edge of your seat. A winner and a back-to-basics, with a good dose of Seventies' despair thrown in.