Product: The Descent (Original Unrated Cut) [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
Off the Beaten Path
Somewhat resembling a big budget `Blair Witch Project' for adults, `The Descent' finds six girlfriends from the U.K. spelunking in the caves of Appalachia after one of them, Sarah (Shaina McDonald), has a tragic family SUV accident. Wanting to console her a year after she loses her husband, Sarah is not always a happy camper. Everyone is all smiles in their mountain cabin, but soon we are confronted by the usual surprise tactics: people sneaking up on others, bats coming out of nowhere, etc. The movie then digs deep into the subconscious. There are dream sequences that effectively tap our deeper regions. Then, we go down physically. (How refreshing it is to have a horror movie where going down and tunneling through caves replaces the forest or haunted buildings. )In the movie, writer and director, Neil Marshall, relies on plausible missteps. There's the misplaced and left behind guide books, replaced in favor of adventure, and then there are injuries. Tunneling through the caverns and tight holes made me feel claustrophobic, so true was the journey's authenticity. (And I don't suffer from claustrophobia.) There's also a foreboding presence that is made tangible with low-key creepy music. In the story there is also some ambiguity about treachery that thickens the plot. Led by Juno (Natalie Mendoza) but having Rebecca (Sashia Mulder) as a key player adds to our drama and makes the dangers lurking ahead all the more dire...The line, "We all lost something in that crash," creates a tension and a needed ambiguity. Twisty, just like the underground terrain, `The Descent' rises above most formula horror pictures, even, if like M. Night Shymalan's, `Signs,' and many others, it relies a great deal on anticipation to create its results.