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The Descent directed by Neil Marshall

Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, Alex Reid

IMDB rating: 7.4/10

The Descent is by far one of my favorite horror movies and also one of the few that has ever actually managed to scare or disturb me. The plot is very solid and interesting; I especially liked how all the different characters played separate but important roles in progressing the plot. As for the characters I liked the way
Marshall broke the usual horror movie atmosphere of helpless women and strong men and instead deleted men almost entirely from the film. All the main characters are women and they handle themselves quite well considering the circumstances. Shauna Macdonald plays the main heroine (Sarah) and does a good job but the two secondary heroines definitely do better jobs. Natalie Mendoza plays Juno, the badass adventurer chick who is the leader of the group. Alex Reid (who to me is amazingly attractive) plays Sarah’s best friend Beth and provides the intellectual counterpart to Juno’s wild aggressiveness. Really, the six women and their differing characters are an essential and vital element to this film and set it apart from the rest of the genre.

            Along with good characters, The Descent has an amazing setting in the form of caves hundreds of feet underground. The caving element of the movie ramps up the tension (nothing actually “scary” happens for the for the first thirty or forty minutes yet you’ll find yourself tense and on the edge of your seat). One note about this is that if you don’t have any fear of caving or climbing a lot of this tension will be lost on you, which brings me also to my only other criticism of this film. Multiple viewings definitely decrease the scariness and nowadays on my fifth or sixth screening there is only one scene that gets me (a note on this scene I consider it to be one of the best in recent horror cinema, it is the first creature attack seen through the nigh vision on the camera).

            Overall, The Descent is a great horror film, has a very tight plot with good pacing, the creatures and terrors are all very horrifying, and the characters interest you in their plight. The ending is a bit weak but makes sense so I don’t really hold it against
Marshall for putting it in. This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite horror films and I recommend it very highly.

Rating: 9/10

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