Six chicks go caving

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2007)

This is by far one of the more amusing horror movies that came out in the past few years. It delivers a good performance by all actors, involves good drama and interesting horror techniques.
When the horror drama picks up, we are amused with interesting claustrophobic shots and tons of unexpected scenes, as well as gallons and gallons of fake blood. Although most of the scenes are too dark to appreciate the gore, the sound effects create a necessary mood for most of the setting.
Unlike the other cave movie of 2005 (ironically entitled The Cave), none of the character pretends to be something else. There are no sonar devices or million dollar equipment. It is simple and beautiful. Six girls go on a caving adventure with nothing more but the basic spelunking equipment. The idea and the premise is the same in both movies, but the simplicity of The Descent makes it a much better flick than The Cave.
There are few shortcomings to this movie that could have made it a lot better: For one, the relationship between characters is not very well established. In most cases, you have to guess who is who and how they know each other and whether they are related at all. The protagonist's tragedy in the beginning of the movie seems to be absolutely pointless. It does not add anything to the storyline and seems like if taken out of a context, could have made a good movie on its own. The idea does revisit us throughout the movie, but it looks like it was added after the movie has been made just to add some footage time. Although there is an obvious conflict between the main character and her best friend, we have to guess as to what exactly it is until the final climax, which is not explained well either. Finally, the storyline takes too long unwrap; almost an hour is literally wasted on chick flickery which is sort of a waste. We are in a sense prepared for the horror to come and are kept on the edge with constant boo effects, but after an hour of these, a viewer might get a bit bored.
8/10