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74 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spelunking Through The Gates Of Hell, December 4, 2006
You've got a pretty tight group of girlfriends. You're a pretty tough girl yourself. You do a lot of adventurous stuff that usually includes mostly just your girlfriends.
After a year's hiatus due to a terrible family tragedy, you decide it's time to hook up with your girls and shake the bad memories on a spelunking outing.
You head to a remote area of the Appalachian Mountains to some charted caves recommended by a spelunking guide, according to one of your group members. You embark with 6 friends into the caves from the highpoint in the mountain...down...down...down through the bowels of the mountain in search of an exit at a lower point.
Then two of a plethora of bad things happen. A tunnel that you came through is sealed off leaving you only one way to go...down. And your partner reveals the reality that a guide didn't recommend the caves at all; she thought it would make the excursion more adventurous in unexplored caves. There is no charted way out.
Think that's a problem? How about shining your light down the next tunnel where you see an eerie human-ish looking figure crouched in the dark peering back at you?
The Descent has chills. There's high suspense. It goes without saying that there are good old fashioned jump-out-of-the-dark scares (they are in a cave!). No special effects needed here to generate excitement. The creatures are well designed and scary.
The story flows very well. The acting is better than the average Horror flick. And Director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers) keeps a better than average flow of twists and turns coming.
Do indeed see it if you're into the genre. The Descent is one of the movies on my Amazon Listmania List, "15 Flicks Guaranteed To Leave A Permanent Impression".
Note: The US theatrical version had a lame ending compared to the original UK version. The US DVD release gives you the option of which ending you'd prefer to view. Go with the original.
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Climb Aboard For "The Descent", December 9, 2006
I'm not typically accustomed to going "gaga" over horror films. It's not that I don't like them, I love them--but truth be told, it's hard to find genuinely good ones. I'm entertained by lots of the gory, splatter films that have recently dominated the box office. Usually, however, it's a matter of accepting the limitations within these films and getting whatever enjoyment you can out of the scenarios. It's been a very long time since I thought of a current horror movie as a 5 star event, so nothing could have surprised me more than "The Descent."
The preliminary setup is a good one. Our heroines begin to explore some unknown, uncharted cave systems and quickly become trapped. Now our ladies must use their resourcefulness and intelligence to try to get out. The dynamics start to play out between the women--good and bad--and a real fear for survival starts to set in. We are squarely in a man versus nature psychological thriller atmosphere. It recalls for me "Open Water"--a film whose horror is about helplessness and being stranded, not about sharks.
But just as soon as I was sure where I was headed, the rug was pulled out. The last third becomes a monstrously bloody battle for survival. It is so well choreographed, I was sucked in wholeheartedly. And far from being victims--our heroines exhibit intelligence, brutality, resilience, loyalty and a real survival instinct. We've got some real female empowerment going on! For pure horror, this film goes out with a real bang.
I was completely blindsided by this one. There's a good screenplay, a credible backstory, appealing actresses, great cinematography and nice effects.
"The Descent" may not be the "best" movie I see this year--but as a pure adrenaline rush, I promise you it will be one of my favorites. KGHarris, 12/06.
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115 of 137 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good horror film, two thumbs up., December 12, 2005
I thought this film would turn into garbage since I wasn't looking forward to seeing it, when I saw all the wonderfull reviews I thought that it might be a bit to overhyped and the premise did not look that intresting but I was completely wrong the descent turned out to be a true horror film and I was not dissapointed. From the beggening till the end I was amazed at how scary this film was and it was an excellent british horror film, from the moment the girls enter the caves your nerves are on edge. The story's about a group of girls who seek adventure on a cave expedition, while deep inside the underground caves they find themselves cut of from the world and off the map. Battling to get back to the surface they realise that they are being hunted by an unknown cannibalistic force, now they must pull together and fight for their survival, directed by Neil Marshall the guy that did Dog soldiers. The film was very gory so if your squimish or claustrophobic then I suggest you watch something else because most of the time the action takes place in small and tight areas but thats whats great about this film as well as the atmosphere and great location. I thought that this film was great and I highly recomend this for true horror fans.
Edit 08/13/06: I'm just going to let people know that this film was released last year in the U.K. and its available on region 2 dvd just this month it was released in theaters across the U.S. so far the American version has a different ending which sucks, its better if you watch the original ending for this excellent film enjoy....
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