A tense, thrilling, and claustrophobic survival horror film

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2014)

THE DESCENT is a movie I let sit in my video library for a while before actually watching it. Not because I was scared to, but mostly because I wasn't sure if it would be as good as I'd heard. Thankfully, my fears were assuaged when this turned out to be an effectively creepy and claustrophobic horror film. I'm not particularly scared of confined spaces but I can sympathize with those who are, and this film does a great job of creating an maintaining such an atmosphere for most of its running time. The basic plot is about these six women who go on a spelunking trip in the Appalachians. As a group, they've gone on similar adventures before, but nothing quite like this. As they get farther into the cave and deeper underground they are pushed to their limits and their sanity is tested, as well as their bond of friendship. They also discover that they may not be alone. Or are they?
Generally speaking, the acting was sound and the characters were believable as a group of friends. There wasn't too much in the way of character development, but they were established well enough in the beginning that once things started to go south you cared about what happened to them. Of the six friends, only one is really given a back story, namely that her husband was killed in a freak accident after water rafting trip with a couple of her friends (who are in the main group). Her mental state is actually very important to the story, but in a way that I'll save for whoever wants to watch the film.
Other aspects of the film that I thought very well-done were the cinematography, lighting and use of space. A lot of the film takes place in a cave underground, and it made good use of natural and artificial light to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere that kept you involved in what you were watching. You often get the sense that something could come out of the shadows at any moment and, in fact, there were a number of jump scares that utilized this very effectively. Although somewhat predictable in this regard, I didn't think they were overused and were germane to the story being told. Also, considering that this is a Neil Marshall film, the gore effects were well done and suitably gross.
However, I do have a couple issues with the film as well. First, the score, while appropriate and engaging, was a little too insistent in parts. I don't really like when a film's music telegraphs how you're supposed to feel in a particular moment, and the music here gets used like that occasionally. With such a dark and claustrophobic film, I thought it would have been more effective to dial back the score a bit and let the scenes breathe a little on their own, creating a more natural sense of terror rather than inflating it with somewhat overblown instrumentation. I also thought that the story and character development could have been a bit more substantive. Instead of being rich and layered, it was minimal but effective.
Overall, despite my misgivings about the score and thin plotting, I rather enjoyed this film. It's most effective at establishing an maintaining a tense mood and claustrophobic atmosphere that really works. At no point was I ever bored, although I would scratch my head at some of the stupid things that the main characters would do. But what horror film doesn't have characters who make ill-informed decisions at one point or another? What I got out of it what is a tense and thrilling survival horror with strong (but loosely defined) female characters and their descent into madness (the title works as a double-entendre). Highly recommended for genre fans.