Customer Reviews

The Descent: Part 2

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

The Descent didn't need a sequel. It was a pitch-perfect horror film, one of the best I've seen in the last decade or longer, that incorporated high amounts of tension, a desperate struggle, some amazing jump-out-of-your-skin scares, great characters that you actually cared about and just the right amount of gore. I loved that film. Its original UK ending was also such a great, sad and interesting way to close it out. But apparently, The Descent: Part 2 decides to forgo that horror classic ending and instead uses the American/"happy" ending. It's interesting to note that the sequel is "Part 2" as opposed to simply The Descent 2. It indicates that it is an extension of the first film, as opposed to a sequel. As such, to discuss Part 2, I'll have to talk about the first one. You've been warned.

The American ending of The Descent finds Sarah crazed and amnesiac with fear of her plight from the previous film, running to a rescue truck. During the time she and her team have been lost, the local sheriff has started a search party for Juno, who not only was left for dead by Sarah for her infidelity and a misunderstanding, but is also a senator's daughter. Sarah is taken to a hospital where said sheriff, Sheriff Vaines, decides that not only is Sarah a suspect in the missing spelunkers (for her shirt was covered in blood) but that she must go back underground to help locate them. Never mind the fact that this probably wouldn't happen in real life because 1) she's obviously hurt 2) mentally unstable and 3) uh...she has no memory, remember? Also forgetting the fact that it seems awfully coincidental that she happens to not remember that the cave system is swarming with cannibalistic creatures, we now have a reason for more bloodshed.

That's pretty much the movie in a nutshell. Part of the reason the first film was so powerful and shocking was because director Neil Marshall used two different types of terror and helped add some twists to his film. The first part had a claustrophobic, fearful feeling that maybe you were going to be watching Alive...Underground. But once that type of horror was getting a little stale, he does a complete 180 and now they are fending for their lives against some unknown group of carnivorous cave dwellers. It was expertly filmed and paced to perfection. Part 2 tries to ape that same style. It has the same opening credit sequence, has a similar overall motif and even the same music. In a lot of ways feels like a retread...except nowhere near as good. Again you have a group of people who have no clue they are being hunted by monsters. Again you have a small cave-in that causes the group to be splintered, etc. etc. The only problem is that you, the viewer, is in on the twists this time and it really just gives the entire film a "been there, done that" feel. To counter-balance this, Part 2 almost turns into a gross-out "comedy," where Jon Harris (the director) finds more and more ways to drench his protagonists with blood and finds various ways to make sure that blood pours into someone's mouth. I think this happened at least two or three times. It was almost comedic.

The final nail in the coffin is that the characters this time aren't anywhere near as interesting or developed as in the first film. They quickly turned into crawler fodder and their only reason for being there was to be offed in various ways. Only problem is that, in the first film, I cared. In this one, I didn't. What a let down.

Against my better judgment I picked up this direct to video sequel at Fry's for $20. Well, that's $20 that would have been better spent using as toilet paper, it certainly would have proven more useful.

The first Descent was easily one of my most favorite horror movies ever, it was original, well acted, and extremely well done. It was a horror movie that reaffirmed what I have always said, you don't need a huge budget to make a great horror flick, as the Descent was certainly made on a modest budget. I own the special edition which contains both endings, and I MUCH prefer the original ending than the US ending. Supposedly Americans wouldn't be able to handle the darker, more depressing ending of the original, so they pulled a Spielberg on the ending and had the main character escape the caves. This Descent II begins where the US version ends. As I never do in my reviews of movies, I'm not going to get into the plot because someone else has covered that already I'm sure. What I will say is this movie stunk for the following reasons:

1. It was completely unbelievable Sarah would be dragged back down into the cave system she escaped from in her obviously traumatized and wounded state.

2. Once down there, as she finally gets her memory back, shows absolutely no emotion at having been dragged back down into that hell. Instead she becomes Rambo woman, clams up and goes into kick ass crawler mode. I don't know, were it me, I would have let the idiots who dragged me back down there have a piece of my mind for doing so, and then let them know of the extreme danger they're in and what they're facing.

3. Speaking of idiots, as in the rescue group, they're unremarkable characters, with zero character development and thus zero emotional attachment to any of them. In the first movie we send quite a bit of time with the ladies before they ever enter the caves, and thus through proper character development form a bond with all of them. Therefore their deaths become all the more tragic. Not in this movie though, I felt absolutely nothing when these characters were killed off.

4. As is usually the case with an untalented director and writer, lots of blood and gore was substituted for a well directed, well written movie. As gory as the first movie was, this one significantly ups the ante, with fountains of blood due to crushed heads, ripped out jugular veins, severed hands, and various other gruesome deaths. There was even a defecation scene thrown in for good measure to make sure we were sufficiently grossed out, if we weren't already by that point. Lots of gore and blood does not a good horror movie make, without all of that other important "stuff" like a good plot, a good script, a good director, good character development, and good actors.

5. The surprise appearance of a character from the first film is beyond ridiculous. It's like the director was grasping at straws to make the movie "good," and so decided to bring back a character from the first film who's chances of surviving was a million to one. Really it shouldn't take a stretch to figure out who I'm talking about, and yes, if you're nodding your head in disbelief saying to yourself "there is no way she would have lived to make it to a second movie," that's exactly what I was thinking when she appears. Not only did she survive, but she was cruising around like nothing ever happened to her, even though she was barely able to walk in the last scene we see her in from part one.

6. The ending, oh the ending, I don't think I have ever seen a more stupid and pointless ending ever. Enough said about that.

I'm going to pretend I never saw this film so as not to tarnish my memory of the amazing first film. Actually, the only version I watch is the UK version, and in that one there could be no Descent part 2, so really I had no business even watching this film. But, curiosity got the better of me, and the lost $20 and two hours of my time serves me right for going against my better judgment buying this movie in the first place. Please, if you're a Descent fan, and especially a fan of the original ending, do not make the same mistake I did. Or if you're still itching to see this movie maybe you'll be the lucky one who buys my used copy from Movie Trading Company, where it's going tomorrow.

When the first film, The Descent, hit theaters, I saw it 3 times. The movie is one of my favorite horror films of recent times. When I heard a second installment was being made, I felt bittersweet about it. I went into the film both excited and apprehensive because in most cases, sequels rarely come close to being as effective as the original. THIS however is not the case for The Descent: Part 2!

One of the most common questions about this film is "Why would the lead character, Sarah, go back down into the cave after barely making it out alive in the first place?" and that question is answered very well and makes perfect sense when you watch the film. The story line and atmosphere, while very similar to the first, are still VERY effective. The film brings the suspense as well as the gore.

This film plays out much more like a continuation of the first story than a sequel, almost as if "To be continued..." should have shown before the credits of the original installment.
If you are a fan, like myself, of the original THE DESCENT, then please, give THE DESCENT: PART 2 a try. Im almost certain you will not be disappointed. I wasnt.

Bravo to the cast and crew of this great scary film! 5 stars!

A misfire with only a few bright moments. With the writer/director of the original film producing this one, why didn't he clean up the awful script? So much goes wrong here - the lead character has zero depth here and goes from zombie to Ms Rambo - a character who has absolutely zero chance of living in the first film...umm...survives for part 2. Instead of being a surprising twist it was an " oh come on, you're kidding" moment. The new movie focuses on gore instead of suspense and intensity. The stupendously horrible last minute "twist" ending that makes no sense. Bad acting, bad writing, it is surprising the movie is such a mess, and a shame. Avoid as if it were the plague.

The original movie, The Descent, blew me away. The sequel? not so much. Not really worth making, either. This movie did not come close to capturing the atmosphere and excellent characterization of the first, and without those, the story comes across as just silly. The ending was ridiculous. The characters from the first movie who appear in this one are just one-dimensional this time around and not even remotely likable. The new characters appear to have been added only so that there would be a respectable body count, along with adding a vaguely plausible excuse to get the blonde lady to go back into the cave (which, obviously, she would not have done on her own. Even she isn't that crazy). All I can say is that if you want to see random fighting, caves, and running around screaming, go ahead and rent it. If you want something more, watch something else.

They really should have left this alone. I thought the first movie was really a well made atmospheric horror. The Descent 2 just tries to milk the concept for another movie. Well if you have seen the first movie then you know there were two different endings, a dark ending with the main character not escaping and the U.S. version which had the girl escape. This movie uses the U.S. ending and picks right up with the girl escaping and being rescued. But the local law enforcement wants to know what happened to the other girls and our heroin from the first movie is in shock and not talking. So of course they would drag an injured half catatonic girl back down to the caves with only a handful of people and have no one waiting at the surface in constant communication. The movie has such flawed logic that it really kills the picture. Another big problem is the creatures. You constantly see the creatures now, so the mystery and the scares from the first are gone. These are just hundreds and monsters chasing them now. Special effects are noticeable worse in this film as opposed to the first. I thought they looked very fake. What saved this from a one star review was the dark little ending which actually makes no sense, but it was at least fun.

Okay, right off the top, I have to clear up two things really quick:

1).This film itself is only about two stars, maybe two and half. BUT there are some great things in it that brings it up to a solid three with reservations. Plus, the DVD has some neat and informative special features.

2). There's been much confusion on this site and elsewhere on whether this sequel picks up after the ending of the director's original and the only version in Europe ending, or the truncated American release ending. Well, it's a sequel to the Unrated/director's cut/European version of the original film. Firstly, the director of this sequel states that even didn't even know there was an alternate version on the American release. He's then told what the version was and laughs, because, to him, it would seem obvious as the sequel's narrative unfolds that they just find Sarah Carter shambling along the highway after climbing her way out of the cave. If it was a sequel to the American version then why would she be wondering on the highway? The way the American version ends she has a vehicle and has escaped.....SO, lets end that debate right there.

Anyway, either way the fact that Sarah managed to find her way out, which this sequel conveniently never dramatizes or really explains, makes what damages this sequel the most, its first act, even more hard to swallow. We last saw Sarah, at the end of The Descent, fantasizing about escape and then coming back to reality, accepting her fate and spending some R&R time with an imagined image of her dead daughter. It was a stark and unforgiving ending to a horror tale. In this film she is picked up on the side of the road manic and muddy. She's brough to the hospital and interviewed by the very curious police. Where's her friends? Why doesn't she remember anything? Did she kill them and leave them in the caves? Could these creatures she described really be down there? Yeah, as I mentioned Sarah has also lost her memory....RIGHT! I hate when movies, sequel or otherwise, use this cheesy plot device to push their narrative along. It's so false, and so obviously in there to give the character an excuse to willingly go back to the place she spent the whole last film trying to escape. Oh, and then of course the lead detective wants Sarah to accompany him and a new cave team to go inspect the cave, see if there's any survivors, and jog Sarah's memory. Yeah. Right. This plot device barely held together in James Cameron's Aliens, and it's WAY less effective and believable here. The whole first act of this film is a slog, testing the viewers' patience and ability to suspend disbelief.

Fortunately, once our new crew of doomed cave divers gets into said cave the film gets good, really good. It's so well done, frightening and frenetic one wishes the set up had been more clever or at least more believable. The director, Jon Harris, who also was the editor of the first film gets great moments of suspense and carnage once in the cave. It's at least as well done as Neil Marshall's stuff in the original film. The creatures are just as ferocious and hungry. The story even throws in two more kinks and surprises, although I'm sure most reviews here have ruined them, I will not mention them. The photography and pace are well done. The shocks come one on top of the other until the gut wrenching finale. Unfortunately, the film basically ends where the first one did, but there's a twist in the prologue. A twist that doesn't really make much sense. I'm sure a viewer could deduct their own reasoning behind what and why just happened before the end credits, and that's fine, but totally unnecessary. It's either really lame sequel bait or a very uncreative way to end your film on a twist. YOu decide. The writing in this last sequence seems to revert to the crappiness it was in the first act. It's like someone else wrote the good stuff that makes up the middle and the top parts of the third act.

First, the Blu Ray. It's a region free disc, but your firmware has to have the most recent updates for it to play. It has no special features, which is weird because this was a British film, and is being released by Icon Home Entertainment(Mel Gibson's company) through it's horror and cult film subdivision Insomnia. The picture and sound is pristine. Really worth it for this film. Having the DVD also, I was impressed how great this grimy little horror film looks on Blu Ray, just like the first film.

The DVD. The DVD, doesn't have the great sound and picture of the Blu ray, but it's not bad. The sound is almost as good, and the picture is just fine when upcomverted on a hi def player. It's the special features on this thing that really make it worth a try. The commentary track with director Jon Harris, and actors Shauna MaDonald(love her, wish she was a bigger star), Krysten Cummings and Anna Skllern is a total joy. This shoot sounds like it was a ton of fun. There's lots of info regarding how things were done and what was left out. You also get the what version is this a sequel put to bed in a funny way on this track. There's several deleted scenes that are mostly forgettable and deal with the horrendous first act. A little bit more creature violence but really only snippets. Finally, we get a making of featurette: Deeper and Darker, that is informative, but really repeats a lot of the info seen from the first film's making of materials. It's entertaining and interesting but this sequel and the original seem to have been made the same way.

The middle section of this film really had me on the edge of my seat, and I smiled as I was being jolted. It's so effective that I gave this film an undeserved third star. The director is so good at pacing, shot progression, the actor's so convincing, and the creatures so cool, that it's a damn shame that better screenwriters couldn't have been employed to surround the cave action with a convincing and less cliche'd narrative. The opening set up scenes are so bad and lame that you'll have to punch yourself in the face to prevent your eyes from rolling. The director, effect men, and actors make this film bareable. They should all do another film, even a sequel to this, with new writers and I would be down.

PS: There's a scene that reference the blood pool sequence from the first film, but this time our heroine finds herself in a pool of feces and creature waste. It's really gross, and ends with a button that is truly goofy, but not out of character with the events considering the reality of the premise. I'll be damned but I squirmed and then laughed. I know most seem to hate this scene, but I really liked it.




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The main protagonist of The Descent, Sarah, does not make it out alive in the first movie. Yet, somehow, she is alive for this sequel. The film isn't bad on it's own, but it comes with a back story that renders this one impossible. Had Sarah survived the first film, it would not have been even half as poignant. If she survives in some alternate "get me a sequel" corporate boardroom universe, there is a lucrative sequel. Hollywood has stooped to new lows here and, at the same time, made a pretty entertaining flick. Confusing.

I understand Horror Movies can't Be Horror Movies without twists and turns and even Yes Awful Endings! I think this Movie was Wrong, The Ending is what Makes me give this 1 star, Just the Ending, The Movie as a whole is 2 stars-3 in a half, The Descent was A Way Better Movie.

Despite Neil Marshall's departure from the director's chair, THE DESCENT editor Jon Harris manages to step in and provide all of the same great aesthetic, claustrophobia, and sheer terror that the 2005 surprise hit delivered four years earlier. PART 2 (as opposed to 2) becomes a powerful statement going in to the sequel, as this genuinely feels like the second half to THE DESCENT's whole.

The action picks up immediately where the original left off, as Sarah returns to the remote caverns with a rescue team that has been assigned to locate the missing climbers after they failed to report back from their trip. Their mission brings them face to face with more subterranean terrors, as they must survive through cave-ins and the monsters hiding in the dark.

Outside of Sarah's convenient memory loss and the obvious negligence in forcing an amnesiac into a search and rescue operation, the plot serves as an excellent approach in continuing the story. The filmmakers have set out to create a reversal of many of the essential themes driving the first film (loss of humanity, destruction of friendships, and others), which they have succeeded in in every way possible. PART 2 also earns a high level of legitimacy in the return of the entire original crew, as well as its two female leads in Shauna Macdonald and Natalie Mendoza. This is taken a step further in the reprisal of the original score and Neil Marshall's attachment as Executive Producer. Building on the continued theme of female empowerment, we also find that the men of THE DESCENT: PART 2 are weak, helpless, and impulsive, where the women remain strong, intuitive, and resourceful.

While Harris does attempt to recreate many of the successful scares from Marshall's film, he has created a fresh palette of unique and perfectly crafted thrills that give his work a life of its own. Skeptical fans of THE DESCENT will be pleasantly surprised and shocked at many of the terrifying jumps the same way that they will enjoy the nauseating tension and suspense generated as the rescue workers squeeze through the impossibly tight passageways. The cave crawlers are just as fierce and menacing as they were before, but they still only pose half of the threat compared to the many cave-ins, dead ends, and suffocating quarters. Sarah's character arc is just as integral to the story of this second film as it had been previously, and Macdonald continues to shine in the role as she rebuilds much that was lost in her last cave dive. In addition, PART 2 packs on the gore in all the right places, without ever relying on it to mask any deficiencies in the plot.

THE DESCENT: PART 2 may be one of the strongest series sequels to come out of the last decade, taking each of the successful elements of the original film and expanding them even further. It is that much more surprising that the film was not given a theatrical release, but it can expect to see a growing rise in interest on DVD.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies