An immersing, terrifying, claustrophobic experience

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 2006)

This movie scared me in ways I hadn't felt since I was a kid. These women seemed so real. That they were unknown actors helped, and the fact that they were fighting for their lives was reason enough for me to feel a kinship without the need for much back story.
Almost all Hollywood horror films repeat certain elements of the horror genre ad naseum like there's a template that must be followed else risk financial failure: the loud, "boo" moments, the highly attractive cast, and always, always the I-didn't-see-that-coming payoff where we're supposed to think the writer is really clever (like in "Saw": I didn't like that movie, mostly due to *spoiler* suspecting that the "dead" guy on the floor was really the killer...it was the "clever" route I expected a writer to take).
The Descent was fresh and realistic. From the moment Sarah gets stuck in that tunnel, it was the most immersing and terrifyingly entertaining experience I've experienced since watching "The Exorcist" so many years ago.
I can't wait to see the British version.