The Descent is a little horror movie that was released in England last year, made the rounds at quite a few festivals in Europe, and finally reared its head in America to do what seems to be good sleeper business. It is the tale of Sarah (Shauna McDonald), who loses her husband and child in a tragic accident at the beginning of the film. From the accident and the immediate aftermath, we fast-forward a year to Sarah and her friend Beth (Alex Reid) as they arrive at their friend Juno's (Natalie Mendoza) cabin near the Appalacian Mountains to meet up with some friends for a caving expedition. But one of the girls has a secret that gets them into more than they bargained for, and they find themselves stalked in the caves by....something. Or do they?The Descent was directed by Neil Marshall, director of cult favorite Dog Soldiers. The film grabbed my attention from the first frame, and held on to it for the rest of the movie. It is well shot, and the trees, mountain landscapes, and caves are visually much more pleasing than in your average horror movie. The score serves the film without drawing attention to itself, and the performances are.....well, nothing amazing, but nothing to complain about either. Like many other elements, they serve the film.
The things that The Descent gets right are atmosphere, ambience, and tone.....three very similiar traits that can and will make or break a horror film. There is gore to be had, but it doesn't create tension like the scene where one of the girls scouts out a VERY narrow passage to the next tunnel......if you're claustrophobic, you might want to avoid this film like a ophidiophobe will be avoiding this week's much-talked-about Snakes On A Plane.
Neil Marshall has done well here: The Descent is one of the most honestly frightening films I've seen in years.....if it doesn't make it into my top 5 for Horror, which it might. I give The Descent a 14, in terms of how much I liked it in terms of replay value. But the actual score the film deserves? It's an 18 out of 22, all the way.
5 comments:
Hmmm, I'm intrigued. I'm a big fan of scary movies, but not if there's gore. Would you say the scare value is worth the gore? Or would I be best to avoid it?
That's a good question. Can you give me an example of a movie where you were like, "Ok, this movie is my gore threshold."
Ummm, anything that has a lot of "detail" I guess is what I don't like. I can deal with shootings and stabbings and breaking bones well enough, but stuff that's like "Oh look, his spleen fell out" or "Judging from the blood spurting out of her arm, her heart rate is slowing down" is a bit too much for me. I also don't like stuff that's totally out there, like cannibalism or torture. I didn't mind stuff like in The Sixth Sense, for example. Sin City, however, is a bit over my "gore threshold."
keep in mind i have not seen the movie, so my opinion is totally unqualified, but i have a feeling The Descent is more atmospheric that gorey. a little gore is required in the horror genre (even Silence of the Lambs had a little), but it's much better when a movie relies on the imagination of the viewer that just trying to gross them out. from what i've read, The Descent does that.
It is very atmospheric, but there is gore to the point of girls getting bitten in the neck, one girl getting impaled through the throat with...something, a girl hiding from a monster in a charnel river.....the atmosphere does outweigh the gore, but there is plenty of gore. It just serves the story, is all, it isn't gratuitious.
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