It Had the Makings of an Excellent Psychological Horror Film... And Then the Mole People Attacked.

Rating: 4/10 (26 September 2011)

The Descent: six women enter, one woman leaves.
A year after her husband and daughter die in a traffic accident, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and five of her friends (Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, MylAnna Buring, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane No one) meet up in the Appalachian Mountains. After a slumber-party-esque night in a rustic cabin, they go cave-diving. They journey into the cave system only to be caught in a cave-in, blocking off the way that they came. It turns out that this is not the cave system that they thought it was; Juno (Natalie Mendoza) took them to an uncharted cave system so that they could explore it together. That means, however, that nobody will know where they are to rescue them. Their only hope is to find a second entrance (shown in a primitive-looking cave painting) before whoever - or whatever - it is that they hear following them catches up.
"The Descent" had the makings for an excellent psychological horror film. The direction was exquisitely claustrophobic, closing the audience into the cramped tunnels along with the protagonists. The general, although not entirely absent, background music engrosses the viewer in every unnatural echo permeating the cave system. Early in the film, the protagonists list off the dangers of prolonged stays underground, among which are visual and auditory hallucinations. Had the movie progressed in the way that it had started - with six strong, yet understandably frightened women, trapped in an uncharted cave-system, suffering from what could only logically be panic-induced hallucinations - the movie would have been an excellent addition to the horror genre. It would be notable if only for its bold decision to include an all-female cast (admirably acted by a more than capable cast).
Then the mole people attacked.
The fact that there was a monster at all was a massive disappointment, but that they were little more than stereotypical, blind, cannibalistic cave-dwellers was an insult. All of the suspense, all of the psychological tension and interesting character development was destroyed the second that the real antagonist was introduced. It wasn't their paranoia or underlying interpersonal issues that threatened their lives, but mole people.
For the life of me I can't understand the positive critical response that it received, given how ultimately disappointing the film ended up being. Fans of suspenseful, psychological horror will enjoy the first half of the film while fans of hack-n-slash monster films will enjoy the second half. Feminists will enjoy the fact that the film has an all female cast, given how male-dominated the industry tends to be. It's hard to imagine an audience for the entire film, as it is never realized as a cohesive whole.