Descent

Plot synopsis:
On her way back from whitewater rafting with her friends Juno (Natalie Mendoza) and Beth (Alex Reid), Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), along with her husband Paul (Oliver Milburn) and their daughter Jessica (Molly Kayll) get involved in a car accident when Paul is distracted. Paul and Jessica are killed, but Sarah survives.
One year later, Sarah and her friends Juno, Beth, Sam (MyAnna Buring), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), and newcomer Holly (Nora-Jane Noone) are reunited at a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina for a caving adventure. The next day, they hike up to a cave entrance and descend. While in the cave, Juno apologises to Sarah for not being there for her after the accident, but Sarah is distant. As the group moves through a narrow passage, it collapses behind them, trapping them. After a heated discussion, Juno admits she has led the group into an unknown cave system instead of the fully explored cave system that they had originally planned, and that rescue is impossible because of this. She then tells Sarah that she led them into the unknown cave in the hopes of restoring their relationship, but Sarah rebuffs her.
As the group presses forward in the hopes of finding an exit, they discover climbing equipment from a previous caver, and a cave painting that suggests an exit exists. Holly, thinking she sees sunlight, runs ahead, but falls down a hole and breaks her leg. As the others help Holly, Sarah wanders off and observes a pale, humanoid creature drinking at a pool before it scampers away. Later, the group comes across a den of animal bones, and are suddenly attacked by the creature (called "crawlers" in the credits). Holly is killed, her neck ripped out before being dragged away, while Sarah runs and is knocked out by a fall down a hole. Juno, trying to prevent Holly's body from being dragged away, kills a crawler with her pickaxe before accidentally stabbing Beth through the neck when she is startled. Beth collapses with Juno's pendant, and a traumatized Juno flees while Beth begs her not to leave her.
Sarah awakens to find herself in a den of human and animal carcasses, and witnesses Holly's body being eaten by a group of crawlers. Juno discovers markings pointing to a specific path through the caves. After regrouping with Sam and Rebecca, and realizing the crawlers' use of sound to hunt, Juno tells them the markings she discovered may point to the way out, but she will not leave without Sarah. Meanwhile, Sarah encounters Beth, who tells Sarah that Juno wounded her and abandoned her. Beth also gives her Juno's pendant which Sarah recognizes as a gift from Paul, realizing that Juno had an affair with Paul before his death. In pain and not wanting to be eaten by the crawlers, Beth begs Sarah to euthanize her, Sarah reluctantly does so by bashing her head in with a rock. She then encounters a family of crawlers, but manages to kill them all, being covered in blood in the process. Afterwards, she has a psychotic breakdown. Elsewhere, Juno, Sam, and Rebecca are pursued by a large group of crawlers. When they reach a chasm, Sam tries to climb across but encounters a crawler scaling the ceiling. It rips her throat out but Sam stabs it before she bleeds to death in front of Juno and Rebecca. Rebecca is then dragged back and eaten alive as Juno escapes.
Juno encounters Sarah and lies to her about seeing Beth die. After defeating a group of crawlers, Sarah confronts Juno, revealing that she knows that Juno had wounded Beth and left her for dead, and also about the affair. She then strikes Juno in the leg with a pickaxe and leaves her to die to a swarm of approaching crawlers. Juno is last heard screaming as Sarah escapes. Sarah falls down a hole and is knocked unconscious. She awakens, manages to escape from the cave, runs to her vehicle, and speeds off. Upon seeing Juno sitting next to her, Sarah screams and reawakens to find herself still in the cavern, revealing that the events since her previous awakening were a dream. She hallucinates about a smiling Jessica close by her, just as the camera pans out revealing that Sarah has reached a dead end, and the calls of the crawlers are growing louder.
=== Alternate versions ===
For the U.S. theatrical release, the film ends with the appearance of Juno in the car, and the scene where Sarah hallucinates her daughter in the torchlight was removed entirely. The Unrated DVD released in the US includes the original ending. This ending leads to the events of the next film.

Tags: violence, revenge, sadist

Review:
It's not a bad movie exactly, but it's one of those films that desperately wants to be a deep comment on human nature while not realizing that its story is practically a genre.
From there it feels to be downhill with poorly developed characterizations giving way to the blatantly "shocking" overextended finale.Rosario Dawson is always someone I enjoy watching on-screen, having a spiritual warmth few young actresses can match.
Disappointment because the storyline was potentially powerful, the prospect of seeing Rosario Dawson in a smaller intimate movie was exciting and, being a fan (sounds pervy, I'm not!) of 'rape/revenge' flicks of the 70's, I was needless to say very curious to check this movie out.
Just like the scene where Dawson gets raped: it seriously lacks intensity!
I must admit that the screening at the festival wasn't so good so maybe I missed out something here but at the end of the movie, I couldn't help thinking 'I feel like watching Argento's 'Inferno' again.
Descent is an odd little movie.not too much happens for most of it's running time.in fact,until you get to the last 20 minutes or so,the rest of the movie has no context.people just do things for no discernible reason.plus,all the character are wretches,so that also makes it harder to have much interest.it basically felt like i had walked in during the middle of a movie,with no idea what had transpired before.it is a very slow movie,and it is disturbing at times,but if you can get through it,it sort of makes sense in the end.if you're not the patient sort,then you should skip this movie.otherwise,i'd say give it a shot.i thought it was worth it in the end.for me,Descent is a 6/10.
While you feel pity for the protagonist in the first half, her "revenge" is extreme and angry, leaving the audience to stare at the last shot, just before fading into darkness, going: "...what did I just see?" The lighting is brutal (seriously, if you watch it, leave the lights on) and the mismatched cast is somewhat pathetic--even Rosario Dawson could not save this doomed piece.
Just like a great companion "Hard Candy", this movie can easily teared down your emotion and left it as open-wounded.Rosario Dawson is Maya, a shy college student who, just like any hopeful young girls, wishes to meet a perfect man.
Spending time in dance club where drugs, boozes and stranger intimacy are her new friends.Months later, the story comes to last act when Maya and Jared meet again in the classroom.
What we have here in the last 20 minutes is the most disturbing, depraved, twisted act that anybody couldn't possibly imagine.One can think of how cheerfulness to see our heroic trio in "Death Proof" got their revenge.
But with this powerful opening and ending, It's obvious that she has a rightfulness to tell this story straight.One can also admire the lead (and first time producer), Rosario Dawson, to put herself into an interesting career path.
As she feels that she's capable to do everything from now on.In the final moment where the film just simply captures at Maya's face, it's effective.
And I'm very sure Rosario Dawson ended up in this film cause she though this would be her jarring break away indi hit, a wowing NC-17 movie.
(By the way this film is not to be confused with another fairly recent pic about the topic of "female empowerment," "THE Descent" (2005), directed by our Splat Pack friend, Neil Marshall, who also happens to be a major talent his own right.) But getting back to this "Descent," the NC-17 rated (uh-oh) effort on which the lovely Ms. Dawson takes a producer's credit (congratulations) and directed by Talia Lugacy (strong chance that's not a real name), as good as it is (in moments), it will not be appreciated by most lay people out there because the script is pretty flawed.
Of course, in the premise alone, you have the promise of rising conflict, but there still lies the task therein of accomplishing rising conflict.At times, this thing plays like an interesting piece of experimental theater and, well, I guess I'll let the others who've already commented here speak to the boringness of it, namely that which occurs in the second act -but find me a second act that isn't boring?
There's also this Catch 22 that goes along with these quasi-independent films like "Descent" in which Rosario happens to be attaching herself to and leveraging her "fame-identity" to get a script into production that would, under usual circumstances, not get made at all while at the same time she is basically a miscast in the film's leading role.
Rosario Dawson is gorgeous and, apparently, you can shoot this girl from just about any angle all day long, but, oh, wow-wee, how fast the time just slips away: Rosy ain't no undergraduate no more.
No, graduate students don't really have these type of qualms with football players, do they?" Again, if you are Rosario Dawson, Executive Producer, that's the one of many, many aspects to the professional film process you'll have to think about as you embark on this wonderful new role in your film career.
And if you don't have the answer to why you're movie isn't convincing, let me tell you: there is a boatload and a bevy of vivacious, well-qualified, undergraduate aged talents, pining to get involved in the business, who might have nailed that lead character down, all the while, looking just as darn good as you know who; but unfortunately without Ms. Dawson -no Honey, NO money.
If you're into experimental American film-making, cinematographic imagery of implausibly well formed college studs (or male model drop-outs) in their early twenties, or if you're an undergraduate, just plain angry at the hormonally aggressive young men that comprise less than half of your American university, "Rosario Dawson's Descent" might be your flavor of RockaRoll..
First of all, the leading lady, Rosario Dawson, is just about the coldest thing to see in a movie.
Descent (2007) BOMB (out of 4)Lame and painful "drama" about a bright, young college girl (Rosario Dawson) who is raped by her date (Chad Faust) and soon finds herself at sex clubs doing cocaine and taking home various men.
I normally don't watch extras on a DVD unless it's a movie I enjoy or one I'm interested in but this horrid film had me curious so I checked out a few interviews with Dawson and her friend, director Lugacy.
I say that as a joke as I'm sure both had seen the film but this is a complete disaster from start to finish and in the end I couldn't help but find myself bored out of my mind.
I won't ruin the ending but it has an interesting twist that just doesn't work because by the time it comes most viewers, myself included, will either be sleeping, have turned the film off or simply won't care.
The rape of Dawson is very tame so I'm guessing the MPAA once again struck the rating because of the male nudity that happens at the end.
There might be a good story or idea here but everything is carried out so poorly that nothing works and in the end this movie started to get on my nerves by the fifteen-minute mark.
In reality things like this do happen and that is why this movie shows a lot of it.
It all starts with Maya (Rosario Dawson in superb performance) whose recently started attending college has everything going well for her.
Love Rosario Dawson, think she's one of the finest actresses of the modern era.Descent seems to be more about self-empowerment than anything else.
The only consistency is the representation of self-empowerment in the characters and Rosario's journey from self empowerment to loss of empowerment and back again.Pitching this as a rape classic isn't appropriate, and that's probably why so many people don't enjoy the film.
The standard 'rape' audience wouldn't particularly like this film, and maybe that's the point?
There's a compelling relationship between the characters and the target audience and while the film doesn't slap the audience across the face with self-righteous audacity it does engage the viewer for what may or may not be, all the wrong reasons.Descent is a good film which IMHO is severely under-rated..
I think this film gets a bad rap because it makes people uncomfortable.
Maya, played by Rosario Dawson, is constantly the subject of transgressions until she breaks after being raped.
And then the story gets dark.After watching this film, I was in a deep despair for a few weeks.
I can see how the end may have come off extreme but I'd be lying if I didn't say I wished that every guy who's ever forced a woman into sex deserved exactly what Jared got.
When in actuality it's their lack of patience and comprehension that needs fine tuning and not the product of a creative mind such as Talia Lugacy's.Rosario Dawson displayed the numbness of self-destruction flawlessly.
Often times, much like the films "aimed at teens" mentioned in the prior comment, the effects of rape are displayed as either extremely manic and impulsive or terribly depressed, isolated and lifeless.
Dawson, in my opinion, manages to perform the balancing act so many survivors fall prey to: drone-like existence in the waking hours, working some dead end job to survive (and distract) and then overindulging in vices in order to lose themselves in the haze of substance abuse rather than face what sobriety brings.I thought this film told the truth and I appreciated it for finally showing people a different side of rape.
So many people let the end of this film devour the middle and the beginning...I believe that Maya's face during the act was the end...not the act itself...not the vengeance or the meaning behind it...just her face...thank you.
It was sold out and attended by all the major stars including fellow my-spacer Marcus Patrick.I give the movie 7.5 starts out of a possible 10 stars.The movie begins with Maya (Rosario Dawson) at college.
The rape scene is a little long and hard to take, but it is necessary for the rest of the movie that follows.Maya now starts to lose her soul to drugs and sex.
I thought they were well done and I noticed that the director of photography was applauded at the end of the showing during the credits by the audience.Maya is then back in college as a TA and who is in her class -- Jared her rapist!!
Note:: for anyone who plans on seeing this movie this scene is full frontal nudity - may not be right for the younger viewer.She then turns the situation around and she becomes the beast and proceeds to rape him.
Once again, the scene is dark, gritty, and very rough.If you are going to see the movie and don't want to know what happens next, skip this paragraph and go on to the last paragraph.This is where Adrian reenters the picture.
It only makes matters worse.This is an excellent movie, will well acted roles, and I recommend it to anyone who is thinking about going to see it.
Character's are thin, dialog is monotonous, etc.Normally I try to take films on their own terms but Descent didn't really seem to know what those were.
I felt like I was watching a porno/rape flick.
Having just recently re-viewed "Lipstick" for the first time in a few decades, I backed it with "Descent" even though I have heard more negative comments than good from other film friends with tastes as varied as mine.It's interesting to contrast how the unique niche of the Rape Revenge movie has evolved in the past 32 years, from the full-on gore of "I Spit On Your Grave," to the tawdry sensationalism of "Lipstick," to the tasteful handling of the issue in "The Accused." But "Descent," though making some important points, never really offers us anything truly new in terms of revelatory meaning.
By the time we get to the finale, our interest has already waned.One point of success that Dawson does point out in the Q&A is that by the end "revenge" scene we are pumped for retribution, then realize just how drawn-out and ugly the reality is.
If more expository scenes like this had been added and more of the middle third cut down, we might have an interesting psychological study of the impact of senseless acts of violence.As the film stands in the final cut, though, all we get is what we've seen before, only in a more graphic rendering.
.. It's pretty bad when the generic movie synopsis has more information than the film itself.
It's like they were trying to fool us into thinking that there was some kind of movie here, filming just enough so that there was the resemblance of a story and leaving the rest to our imaginations.
Rosario Dawson stars as a girl who is date raped and then begins a decent into darkness until given a chance at revenge.
Forgive me for being vague but nothing in this film, other than the end (which I would love to talk about but can't cause it would spoil it), and the image of Rosario Dawson as nothing more than an image, stayed with me.What can I say, this may click with you, it may not, for me it's time I can't get back.
This is particularly painful as the lighting was atrocious, and the sound was weak.Maya (the lovely Rosario Dawson) is date-raped and descends into a sort of depressive state that leads to alcohol and drugs.
Just as the rape was brutal, so was the ending.No, despite two sex scenes, you see nothing of Rosario..
I rented this movie simply because Rosario Dawson was in it.
Film is art.If you still house a soul within your walking meat-sack apparatus, this rape scene is every bit as powerful as "Irreversable".
The distinction here is that "Irreversable" was a violent rape scene involving two people whose paths have unfortunately crossed at the wrong time and hell ensued.
My particularly favorite scene being a synchronism of all these film aspects working together; "Maya" dancing in a sea of writhing bodies, something inside her awakening, becoming aware, all set to a beautifully sad Jeff Buckley tune.I don't think I've really spoiled anything here but I'm stopping before I do.
This are just my thoughts, why I think the movie fails (in the end - pun intended).Acting wise, Rosario Dawson is really good and almost conveys portraying someone almost a decade younger (a teenager in other words).
After the first rape takes place, Rosarios character doesn't tell anyone what happened.
But when Rosarios character meets her rapist in class again, his being in the movie seems pointless.
We get the point that Rosarios character isn't the same anymore, that she went "bad" and is able to hurt people.
As absurd as that sounds, the guy meets up with her, not without us having seen him beforehand, with another girl (very likely that he raped her too, although we never see anything of that, fortunately) and his football career.
If this really should work as a revenge movie, it would have been better if Rosarios character herself would have been doing all the "revenge".
Rosarios character is more or less, only watching what happens.
Which brings me to the biggest disappointment.Irreversible comparison: "Irreversible" had the rape scene, but the movie went on (even if it was back into time).
It is more interesting seeing were Rosarios character would go after the second rape scene and how she would cope, with what she had done.
a broken character that the movie cuts off ...Good intentions (Talia and Rosario had worked before), but failing to convey most of the things, they set out to do (even if you can see what they meant, it has to be convincing, otherwise it doesn't work) ...
Maya changes, and it isn't for the better.The revenge comes at the end, in an extended scene that takes up about the last 1/3 of the movie.
I've seen Rosario's work in other films (7 pounds, with Will Smith and Woody Harrelson comes to mind), but here, she is the perfect rendition of the character she portrays, and perhaps that's why some people are disturbed by this story and how it unfolds.No fluff here, it cuts to the bone in a range of interrelated themes which are perhaps a little too close to home for some, but I will offer this bit of insight, without providing a spoiler (which I never do in any reviews), the ending is, well .
As a victim, I feel that Dawson did a fantastic job in her role of Maya.
This looks at rape from a different, more realistic standpoint than any other movie I've ever seen on the subject.
i was so unsure if i was going to watch this and be disturbed for like a long time.
Got past the rape scene and i couldn't figure why people were so disturbed or bored by the movie.
It had about 3 of these pointless scenes, where you see the main character Maya kind of get out of control but it didn't show it right making me want to fast forward.
*3 out the 19 films starred an African-American main character (besides Descent).
While most films focused on male driven story-lines, Descent focused on a women's perspective, focusing on her unfolding after trauma.Descent focuses on Maya's day to day life, never explaining or commenting on the events, rather instead, letting the viewer feel it's passing scene for what it is.
Becoming this alter self as a means of strength, like the rape/revenge classics of the 70's, you get the same mechanics in Descent.
The scenes following the rape, you can really feel for Maya and see yourself in her position.