Product: The Descent (Original Unrated Cut) [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
Spelunking Through The Gates Of Hell
You've got a pretty tight group of girlfriends. You're a pretty tough girl yourself. You do a lot of adventurous stuff that usually includes mostly just your girlfriends.After a year's hiatus due to a terrible family tragedy, you decide it's time to hook up with your girls and shake the bad memories on a spelunking outing.You head to a remote area of the Appalachian Mountains to some charted caves recommended by a spelunking guide, according to one of your group members. You embark with 6 friends into the caves from the highpoint in the mountain...down...down...down through the bowels of the mountain in search of an exit at a lower point.Then two of a plethora of bad things happen. A tunnel that you came through is sealed off leaving you only one way to go...down. And your partner reveals the reality that a guide didn't recommend the caves at all; she thought it would make the excursion more adventurous in unexplored caves. There is no charted way out.Think that's a problem? How about shining your light down the next tunnel where you see an eerie human-ish looking figure crouched in the dark peering back at you?The Descent has chills. There's high suspense. It goes without saying that there are good old fashioned jump-out-of-the-dark scares (they are in a cave!). No special effects needed here to generate excitement. The creatures are well designed and scary.The story flows very well. The acting is better than the average Horror flick. And Director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers) keeps a better than average flow of twists and turns coming.Do indeed see it if you're into the genre. The Descent is one of the movies on my Amazon Listmania List, "15 Flicks Guaranteed To Leave A Permanent Impression".Note: The US theatrical version had a lame ending compared to the original UK version. The US DVD release gives you the option of which ending you'd prefer to view. Go with the original.