"If There's No Risk, What's The Point?!"...

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2020)

In Director Neil Marshall's (DOG SOLDIERS) THE DESCENT, a sudden tragedy leads Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) into a period of recovery, culminating in a caving trip w/ her friends. Things quickly get out of hand, as the group finds itself not only up against the forces of nature, but things quite unnatural and deadly. True to the title, the rest is a journey deep into the Earth, the bonds of friendship, and the human soul. Visceral, jarring, and terrifying, this film uses darkness, tight spaces, and labyrinthine tunnels to create a suffocating atmosphere of creeping dread and doom. The all-female cast delivers a collectively convincing performance. However, the growing tension between Sarah and the headstrong Juno (Natalie Mendoza) takes center stage. While the horror around them grows, and the death toll mounts, secrets are revealed from which there is no turning back. Marshall takes full advantage of his tangibly claustrophobic sets, causing us to tighten up and squirm along w/ the characters. The aptly named "crawlers" are original and well-realized. They're also scary as hell! Gruesome, primal, and frenzied, this movie still manages to have perfect moments of poignancy. A masterpiece of its genre... P.S.- Of the two different endings -the more hopeful theatrical release or the utterly hopeless, original director's cut version- I personally prefer the latter, as it ties in w/ several foreshadowing sequences...