“I’m an English teacher, not f@&#ing Tomb Raider.”
I first saw The Descent in the theater, and I really wish they would re-release it in theaters again. Watching it in a darkened basement does enhance the claustrophobic feel of the film, but my memory of the theater experience was that it was even better on the big screen. The sheer weight of all that stone seemed to press down on the characters and the audience. I vaguely remember muttering “oh crap” when that first, narrow passageway starts to collapse. I don’t have claustrophobia, but the movie made me feel like I did.
I haven’t rewatched The Descent as much as I would like in the interim (see The Medium section for reasons why), but I always remember that first experience with fondness. I specifically went to see it because I was a fan of director Neil Marshall’s first film, Dog Soldiers. I think this is still the only film of his that I’ve seen in the theater.
While Marshall’s subsequent output hasn’t quite lived up to the promise of his first two films, I still pay attention to his work and keep hoping that someday we’ll see another release that achieves the combination of characters, cinematography, pacing and sheer inventive horror that we got in Dog Soldiers and The Descent.
And if it doesn’t happen, at least we still have those films, right?
The Medium
I’ve owned three different copies of The Descent, on DVD and Blu-ray, and none of them have ever worked in any media player I own. I have no idea why this is, or why I feel the need to complain about it here, but it ticks me off every time. Especially that one Blu that only played the top third of the screen. I mean, what the hell? Someday I’ll get a decent physical copy and get to listen to the commentary tracks.
Anyway, I watched The Descent on Tubi this time around. Other streaming options include for free on Hoopla, Plex and Fawesome, free with ads on Amazon and Fandango at home and for subs on Moviesphere. It can be rented or purchased at the usual online vendors.
The Movie
A year after a traumatic car accident in which Sarah’s (Shauna Macdonald) husband and daughter are killed, her best friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza) organizes an adventure getaway in the Appalachian mountains. It’s unclear as to whether this is just an attempt to get Sarah to shake off her grief, or if it’s also partly due to Juno’s own guilt and grief (the movie heavily implies that she slept with Sarah’s husband). Joined by a group of their friends, they start to explore a cave system when disaster strikes. And then things get worse.
In some ways, The Descent is about our experience of trauma and grief, and they ways in which we, as human beings, confront – or avoid – dealing with them. In another, more literal way, it’s a monster movie about a group of women trapped underground and menaced by a cannibalistic offshoot of mankind. I have, in the past, opined about how I thought the movie could have been even better without the monsters. It could have been more about survival and how secrets amongst friends can destroy your chance at it when you need to trust each other.
I’ve since come around to the idea that the monsters are part of what makes the movie as successful as it is. Yes, the initial parts of the film – in which the six women descend into an unexplored cave system and get trapped – are intense. The parts where I was holding my breath were all caving related – when Sarah gets stuck, the first (and second) traverse of the huge drop, the part when Holly (Nora-Jane Noone) breaks her leg. I was literally leaning forward in my seat during some of those scenes. In those moments, the film is firing on all cylinders as a suspense film. Lose the monsters and it could probably serve as a good, if not great, example of that genre of film.
But this column is about horror movies, and the crawlers – from their initial, half-glimpsed appearances to their scrambling, screeching attacks – are what make The Descent a horror film. They take the tension and fear and ratchet it up to all out panic and horror. Once they arrive, there’s nearly no time to catch your breath, and some scenes – such as when Sam (MyAnna Burning) and Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) are attempting to hide from a creature and it crawls RIGHT OVER THEM – leave you holding your breath along with the characters.
The casting is key in this movie. I believed each and every one of those women. Marshall does a great job of creating a believable group dynamic with minimal dialogue. The cinematography is sharp, and the lighting is handled extremely well – with the primary light sources always being whatever lighting implements the characters are using. Editing and pacing are also sharp and keep the movie ticking along, even in extended scenes of crawling through tight spaces. He spends a lot of time and focus on faces and the actresses do a fantastic job conveying character and emotion with those faces. A nice change from the almost leering, voyeuristic camerawork you get of women in a lot of horror movies.
As great as the monsters are, they absolutely pale (sorry) for me in comparison to the other antagonist of the film – Juno. She’s the leader and prime mover of the group, and the reason why they get into trouble in the first place. Everyone is expecting to go to a well-known and fully mapped cave, but Juno’s arrogance and unspoken need for forgiveness have led her to bring them to a brand-new system. The women have no way of knowing where it goes, or if there are any exits other than the way they came in. When things go pear shaped, she’s a fighter and a survivor, but she still can’t take responsibility or face the things that really make her afraid, and it costs her and the people around her. She’s the kind of character you love to hate.
As the movie rushes towards the end, I feel like there’s a little of the classic slasher structure to it, with the monsters picking the survivors off one-by-one and Sarah acting as a kind of Final Girl, as she moves past her grief and into badass mode to take on the crawlers AND her so-called best friend. There’s also a ton of blood and gore (something that prevents me from sharing this with my wife). Depending on what version you see there are two available endings, but they’re both just slightly different flavors of bleakness.
The Bottom Line
The Descent is a great, intense horror movie. A bit richer than your average monster movie, a bit gorier than your average suspense film. The characters alone are enough to pull you in, but the deadly confines of the cave and the horrifying nature of its denizens will keep you glued to your seat. Highly recommended.
I understand there’s a sequel, but I still haven’t seen it. To me, the movie works perfectly on its own.
