Product: The Descent (Original Unrated Cut) [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 5.0
EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE (AND I MEAN EXTREMELY)
I'm immensely happy that couple of times a year I come across such movies as "The Descent" although I can't remember exactly when was the last one. I heard that a new movie came out by the director of "Dog Soldiers" and that was enough for me to start looking for the flick. And I was very surprised having found out it's in theaters. I watched it two days back and was totally blown away. I heard different opinions about its flaws and so on, but hey, there ain't no movies without plot holes. And "The Descent's" flaws were the minor ones, you won't notice them if they are not looked very hard for.If you watched "Dog Soldiers" you can get the idea about "The Descent" meaning its mood and atmosphere - Neil Marshall can frighten the audience very well and that's a fact. Remote Appalachian Mountains, sinister woods, gloomy sky - all that work just fine. The distinguishing feature of this film is that all of its characters are females (the only male character is being annuled within the first 5 minutes of the film in a rather grizzly way). And they are not usual horror film stupid teenage girls who like to show breasts, shriek and then be killed brutally. They are quite reasonable women in their late 20-ies or early 30-ies, who can deal with extraordinary situations as it seems. And there are lots of them (situations) to come.Six friends find themselves trapped in a cave and try to get out. Neil Marshall brilliantly managed these cave scenes, moving camera through narrow crawlways - you really start feeling claustrophobic. I personally don't have problems with elevators, but always felt uneasy lying under the bed as a child, so in the theater I found myself covering with cold sweat while watching those scenes. And it's not just the cave that will make you sweat. After the first 50-60 minutes of the movie THEY show up, and THEY will give you much more creeps. But the main Marshall's achievement is that he made quite a realistic flick about feminine frienship. The film demonstrates what six girls would do in extreme circumstances. Of course they try to help each other, but finally you see they don't know whom to fear most - THEM or each other. For they all have different and at times difficult relations with some secrets as usual. This human relations theme adds a lot of substance to the movie. Another good thing is that characters don't make stupid things like in many horror films. We see girls can act bravely, fight furiously and not die shrieking stupidly. One day in life a situation may come when you'll have to make a torch out of your friend's shinbone, and these girls demonstrate us some people won't quail when they're in such an extreme situation."The Descent" delivers to us a sense and mood of a real horror movie which is unlike latest PG-13 films. It's not funny for a second, it's brutal and obscure, it scares on all levels - it has suspense, fear of the dark, claustrophobia, fear of some unknown creatures, repulsion of seeing gore and guts.Speaking of gore - "The Descent" is very graphic and grim, American filmmakers don't dare lately to make their movies that graphic. I noticed that British and European in general flicks remain practically the only ones to really shock the audience."The Descent" is one of the best horror pictures I've seen in my life (and I've almost seen them all), I'm definately buying it on DVD.UPDATE (3/4/06): Just got the DVD from England. It's one of the best editions I've seen. First disc is a feature itself with director & cast commentary and director & crew commentary, the second one is filled with extras: 40-minute detailed "making of" featurette, extended and deleted scenes (about 10 of them), blooper-reel (one of the most hilarious I've seen on DVDs), storyboards, stills galleries, cast and crew biographies, two trailers and a TV-spot.The movie's transfer is rather good, I was afraid it wouldn't since all the action takes place in the dark. Certainly a Superbit edition would be better (and I hope it comes out eventually), but this one is also pretty adequate.The menus are a real piece of art, I haven't seen many like these. Great work.Somehow I liked "The Descent" now even more than when I watched it in theater, believe me this DVD is just awesome. It will be a true gem of your collection.