Superb horror with scares and surprises aplenty, real characters, dialogue and actions.

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2005)

Neil Marshall is a supreme talent in horror that should not be ignored, especially by Hollywood who did just that with Dog Soldiers and is repeating it with The Descent, both of which have not had US cinema releases For his second movie he's decided to stay with horror but this time dropping the fun factor and relying on pure horror, scare tactics and something he's proving to excel in, a very strong and realistic script. Something that hit me during the early scenes of the all female climbing group sitting in their cabin chatting, is the realism of their vocabulary and delivery. It's something that was obvious in Dog Soldiers as well and it appears that Marshall has a talent for this. He picks actors who are not widely known but have a knack for a natural style, and then gives them some of the most natural scripted lines I've heard in a long time. It's very refreshing and very obvious, making it stand apart from many other films in and out of this genre.
From the outset Marshall tells us in no uncertain terms that there's no fun in this film, this is going to be hard, in your face horror. Oh, and expect the scares to be off tempo and unexpected. No matter how atune you think you are to avoiding jumping, shouting out, or just sitting with a grimace on your face, he'll hit you just about every time in this movie. It's scary and very dark.
One of the interesting things about this movie is how dark it is, they used as many realistic light sources as they could through the movie. That means the head torches of the pot holers, flames, torches, etc. Frankly I can't imagine that they got away with realistic lighting throughout, but you certainly have that feel from beginning to end.
The whole movie gives you the feeling of enclosed spaces, darkness and the total loss of any bearings. For the most part you realise that the team are going in and deeper, but when trouble begins you loose all sense of direction and depth along with the characters.
Once again the creatures in the movie are superb, not over the top like other horror offerings of the same ilk, but grounded in reality. Again Marshall has looked at the creature of the movie and worked out what it would look like and how it would behave based more on science and our real world than folklore and fantasy. What he comes up with is a strangely unnerving creature which isn't as all powerful as other films would have, and is real enough to prey upon your own fears rather than allowing you to distance yourself from it with the comfort of that very word, fantasy.
The editing goes a long way to providing us with the shocks and scares on an offbeat tempo. You'll be expecting something, and nothing happens, you'll be expecting nothing, and then the audience screams or leaps. There are more than just scares in the movie though, there are plenty of surprises, twists and quite a few "oh my god" moments, all extremely well crafted, written, edited and directed onto the screen.
As for the talent of the female cast, there's not much to fault them. They are all so believable in their terror and confusion, but particular attention should be paid to MyAnna Buring as the lead, Sam, who takes you on a fantastic change of character, as does Natalie Jackson Mendoza. There's also the super sexy Alex Reid who has some fantastic lines early on in the movie. Nora-Jane No one also gives a superb and agonising performance during a few scenes where gasps and groans were echoing through the audience - that Marshall is a nasty man.
What I really like about this movie is the reality of it all, okay there are some belief suspension moments, but we're not talking parasitic worms that grow into forty foot winged beasts, we're talking something that isn't that far from what could actually occur. Then there's the characters themselves who speak and behave as you think you just might too, and it's that part that really grabs me into Marshall's movies. He's got a realistic script combined with actors who deliver realistic performances. With these positives in the movie you're hooked, pulled in, and there's nothing to distract you from being thrown around with the movie.
The ending is another strong part of the movie, it's also very well conceived, and you'll be sitting watching the credits roll still thinking about the movie, you'll even have walked away and still be thinking about it. You might feel slightly cheated, but I believe that's because we're too used to having everything handed to us on a plate in Hollywood, and this is perhaps why Hollywood hasn't taken either of Marshall's movies as yet, because they don't follow their standard movie template.
Looking back on the movie, I'd like it to have had a little bit more - and please excuse the expression - meat on it. Tying something more in with the main character and her state of mind, as well as the opening of the film, and perhaps a tiny little bit more on the ending of the movie would have made it perfect for me. I think it does a superb job in the horror\scare departments, but there was room for a bit more psychological based subplot, perhaps involving more character interplay.