Product: The Descent (Original Unrated Cut) [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 5.0
My interpretation of The Descent
** SPOILERS AHEAD! **It's all about motherhood.In the beginning Sarah's husband and daughter are killed in an accident. It is this event leaving Sarah damaged and traumatized that forms the basis of the entire film. A year later Juno organizes a spelunking adventure for Sarah and her friends to help cheer her up. This turns out to be a terrible idea.Now note the scene where the women rappel down into the cave. The cave entrance is a reminder of a birth canal, while the women with their umbilical cord-like ropes extending from their waists are a reminder of babies. It's the birth process only in reverse. Sarah lost her child, is haunted by it to the point of near mental illness, and is now going back to where children are born, back to where her daughter came from. As the red flares transform the rocks and stones into flesh and blood, the cave becomes a "womb."So now all the elements of the film come together. Sarah lost in the "womb" battling her emotional demons which are paralleled in the real world by the crawlers. Once she is under attack she naturally goes into survival mode, but this is not just a fight for her life but a fight for her sanity as well.As the film progresses, Sarah is pushed further and further to the brink of madness leading to her cruel revenge on Juno who had been having an affair with her husband. Note here how Sarah herself covered in blood and guts resembles a newborn, for she is no longer the civilized woman she had once been. After this we come to the film's climactic moments where it all makes sense.Sarah runs off, falls and gets knocked unconscious. In the dream sequence that follows, she awakens to a light and climbs out of a second "birth canal" comprised of bones and skulls. It is here we witness the death of the sane Sarah and the birth of the INSANE Sarah.It is only in this state that she can find an end to her torment and experience true happiness. Sarah has stopped fighting. She has her daughter back, and she is at peace. In the film's final moments, we hear the cries of the crawlers echoing the psychosis of her mental collapse as we see her blissfully trapped in the cave forever... The "womb" has become the tomb. The End.The Descent is not just a great horror film, it's a great film period. / RATING: Excellent!