The Descent

The Descent (2006)

A group of six women get together every year for an adventure sports outing -- whitewater rafting, spelunking, etc. One of their number, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), is recovering from a tragic crash that claimed the lives of her husband and daughter while returning from the previous year's trip, but she comes along anyway, hoping to achieve some sense of closure. Things don't go as planned, however, as the group's de facto leader, Juno (Natalie Mendoza), has led them into a previously unexplored network of caverns beneath the Appalachian Mountains rather than the simple outing they had planned. As the women go deeper into the caverns and their entrance is blocked by a collapse, it becomes apparent that they're not alone. They hear strange noises, catch flashes of movement out of the corners of their eyes, find a set of old caving gear -- and finally come under attack by hairless albino things that have made the caves their home.

I really like Neil Marshall's movies, for the most part. These days he's probably better known for directing episodes of Game of Thrones and Constantine, but I was a fan after seeing his first feature-length movie, Dog Soldiers, on the Sci-Fi Channel. He's directed more enjoyable movies, but The Descent is probably his "best," in terms of technical filmmaking. Even critics liked it when it came out, and you know how critics are about horror movies. While Dog Soldiers had a lot of humor and action, The Descent is all tension, all the time. It's an incredibly effective horror movie about the dark places in nature and the dark places in human nature (as the title has a fairly clear double meaning), drawing on fear of the dark, fear of enclosed spaces -- seriously, if you're claustrophobic, this movie will scare the living shit out of you.

I always appreciate a horror movie where the cast isn't totally stupid -- or at least where the stupid decisions seem natural. Juno's decision to bring everyone to an unmapped system of caves is stupid, but she's called out for it. Knocking out the killer or the monster and then running instead of stabbing him repeatedly, now that's the sort of stupidity that makes me grind my teeth, and it doesn't happen in this movie. Even better to see a cast entirely composed of capable women, who are too often relegated to the important role of "standing there screaming as loudly as possible instead of running of fighting back" when Jason or whoever shows up. Of course, The Descent is a pretty bleak movie and it doesn't help anyone in the end, but at least it's nice to see characters that can dish out some punishment for a change. Last but not least, there's an excellent musical score by one of my favorite composers, David Julyan, who also did the music for about half of Christopher Nolan's movies.

Available On: Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, this has the American ending, which is kind of stupid, rather than the original British ending. Anyone wants to know what actually happens, just leave a comment.