British horror at its finest

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2007)

So far the 2 best horror movies of the new millennium are made by the Brits. 28 Days Later and now The Descent. I put my DVD in expected a lot after reading many reviews and wanting to see it for ages (sadly none of my friends are horror fans and I hate going to the cinema by myself) and I must say I did enjoy it. I did not expect a lot of things to happen, and although I had read many reviews, I strayed away from spoilers. The storyline, creatures and main characters may not be the most original, but dammit the made a fine movie out of it.
Okay so think about it; 6 girls stuck in a cave being attacked by unknown creatures. Sound original? Neh. I don't know why this film was so good. I was extremely surprised to see how much you actually see of the creatures and how often. That actually let me down a bit, I enjoy creature films more when you rarely see them. But once you see that first 'crawler' they pop up everywhere. The characters aren't exactly exciting, and I think I'm one of the few people who really disliked the sub-plot, although I thought the final scene with the birthday cake was very smart. The protagonist Sarah has the most background of the 6 girls of course, but I hoped that there would be no major character; that all 6 girls were equal in the eyes of the viewer. Sadly not. Luckily this doesn't let the film down and leads to probably the one part that scared me the most. The gore was great. Hands down. Halfway through I was thinking "Why is this rated MA15+?", and by the end of the movie I knew why. Not only the ending being extremely dark (UK version), the violence is very brutal when it comes. And you Brits seem to have something with eye gouging, because I've seen 3 British horrors involving some eye pushing!
No lengthy review here. Just to sum this up: If you like; Horror Gore UK Women Gollum from LOTR Or dark places See this dark British film. Unless your a cave explorer yourself. Then stay far, far away. 7/10.