Product: The Descent (Original Unrated Cut) [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
Not the usual weekend with the gal pals
An unusual premise/setting (cave exploring), a somewhat offbeat mix of characters (a group of women friends getting away for a weekend), tense direction, and some genuinely terrifying monsters make for a pretty decent horror film, and one that doesn't feel like a thousand others. Small downsides: the women start appearing whiny after a while (understandable, but still annoying), and amid all the eventual screaming at one another for this or that I completely missed a few plot revelations mentioned in these reviews, the main one being that apparently one of the girls betrayed another one in a big way sometime in the recent past. Maybe I was just tired when I watched it. Anyway, I still liked the movie a lot, especially appreciating the way it successfully juggled both subtle, creepy scares and outright horrific moments. It did both well and knew which types of scares to employ when. And speaking of subtle and creepy, be sure to get the "original unrated cut", as it ends the movie on a more subtle and disturbing note that works much better than the ending attached to the truncated American cut. Artful subtlety can be very scary, too, after all. Decent DVD extras add further value to this taut little gem.