The Descent (2006) |
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Trailer
 NUMBERS Box Office: $26,005,908 VHS Rentals: $18,110,000 details... MOVIE CONSENSUS Deft direction and strong performances from its all-female cast guide The Descent, a riveting, claustrophobic horror film. In this low-budget import from Scotland, director Neil Marshall has masterfully created a spelunking nightmare, which doubles as a compelling meditation on morality, vengeance, and the depths to which we might go for survival. MOVIE SYNOPSIS THE DESCENT is Neil Marshall’s hotly anticipated follow up to his 2002 hit DOG SOLDIERS. Directed by Marshall from his own script, it tells the story of an all-female caving expedition that goes horribly wrong, and stars Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone and Myanna Buring. more... MPAA RATING R, for strong violence/gore and language. 
RELEASE DATES Theatrical: Aug 4, 2006 Video: Dec 26, 2006 RELEASE COMPANY Lions Gate Films GENRE Action/Adventure, Dramas, Horror/Suspense, Action, Adventure, Horror, Monsters, Thriller OFFICIAL MOVIE SITE • The Official The Descent Site  
      
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 Hugely claustrophobic and skin-Benefiting from well-'The Descent' is a crafty little horror movie. It's scary. It's gory. And it's even smart in places.
Packed with slick surprises, jarring jolts, gruesome gore, and unbearable tension, The Descent is one of the best horror films of the past several years.
The film has some genuine jolts, and its vivid, scary atmosphere is what sustains the characters when the plot becomes predictable in the final third.
[W]ill inspire boys and girls who like the genre even though it could be read as a tale about the battle between the sexes.
By far, the first half is the most effective as the outing goes from bad to disastrous: Sarah [Shauna Macdonald] gets trapped in a tunnel ("Just keep breathing!"), and the rest are lost - It's never a good idea for B movies to try to evoke feeling for their monster fodder characters. It's enough if you just don't hate the people... The actors are most convincing when they're just screaming.
It's weirdly fitting that a movie about going down into the inky depths to face monsters both physical and psychological has actually raised the horror genre to a bright new height.
The Descent is probably best seen at a midnight screening with a gaggle of like-The Descent is a sharp hammer to the head and a claw to the gut, a blood-The Descent pulls you down into a dark nightmare and doesn't let you come up for air until the end-Technical details and weak characters fail to derail the latest frontrunner in blood soaked underground horror.
Marshall's female characters are strong and tough and they face their fears, if not always courageously, then at least tenaciously ...
Few films parlay their assets so well... or reap such frightfully powerful rewards.
The Descent is a gut-Marshall has a definite eye for the memorably nasty image – several of the shots here are liable to stay with you long after you’ve forgotten the rest of the film.
The Descent sustains a level of intensity that most horror films can barely muster for five minutes.
If you saw last year's Cole Hauser flick The Cave, then imagine it not sucking or skimping, and you've got it.
73%
  
Average Rating: 7.1/10
The Descent is simply a shock-The Descent doesn't need to exist: a script that goes beyond outlandish. Actors who'd flunk out of Make Believe 101. Blind creatures that see things. Did we mention continuity?
Every theater should come with a sign: Your expectations must be this low to ride.
The Descent seems less about female empowerment than female misery. One wonders if Marshall has issues. No males suffer here, just women who, even if they survive, won't ever be the same again.
Prepare to be scared senseless, and then, when you think you have it figured, your certainty will be shaken by scenes built to scare you even more.
Made with a connoisseur's love of muck, blood, inky darkness, and equal parts elegance and ewwww, The Descent raises the level of the post-[Marshall] expertly maps out those raw nerve endings while creating credible characters who speak and act like real people rather than the usual horror archetypes.
For my money, [the] first 20 or so minutes are the best in the film. Once the real adventure gets underway in the cave, things get less interesting.
While the movie has wonderful moments of unmotivated tension that make sure we're quite ill at ease from the beginning, it's also got a few too many of the kind of cheap boo-Not since John Sayles and Joe Dante unleashed Piranha and The Howling on Hollywood's New Morning have two features torn open the horror movie with the cut-
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