Goes deeper than most horror films

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2007)

"The Descent" is the story of a group of adventure seeking young women who choose to go caving, but are unprepared, in more ways than one, for what they find in the dark depths below the Appalachian Mountains. The film is like a heady mixture of Ridley Scott's "Alien", and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear".
The film is terrifying in a way that most films of the genre strive for, but fail to achieve. Many horror films rely only on often predictable sudden starts to convey their scares, while others rely mostly on gruesome imagery (and some sadly on neither). "The Descent", however, melds the two in a way seldom seen.
But, "The Descent" is more than just a scare-the-Hell-out-of-you thrill ride; it is also an exploration into the limits of the human psyche. The "Descent" in this movie is both a literal one and a metaphoric one, and that's what makes it a cut above (or should I say below) most horror flicks.