Interesting and unusual story, all-female cast which really works in the movie's favor. It's interesting to ponder what the movie would be with an all-male cast. Totally horrifying premise from my perspective, in terms of the claustrophobia-inducing spelunking, something I could NEVER do.

This is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. It features a great story, relatable and well-written characters (an all-female cast too, which actually makes the film better), deceptive set pieces, moody music, and impressive cinematography. Without giving anything away, this film is a gripping, harrowing, emotional, and surreal psychological thriller that is sure to never let your mind rest as you watch. Please watch this movie if you haven't already!

A great well written horror movie good cast good director have not seen the descent 2 yet but thats next on my list .

genuinely one of the scariest ive ever seen. i have claustrophobia and nyctophobia so this was a major two-for-one fright-fest for me. every corner they turn and every barely-big-enough mine shaft they squeeze through is dripping with condensation and dread.

I’m not going to give away anything about this movie except to say that I put myself in the heroine(s) place and I stayed shook every time I thought about the movie! It’s worth it if you like a deep, down scare based in reality (mostly). Lol

**WARNING: SPOILERS**
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting a lot from this movie. I remember seeing the cover of this film back in the Blockbuster days and never being interested. I finally decided to watch it the other evening and was pleasantly surprised, for a couple of reasons.

1. It is so damn rare to find a female-focused horror movie. There is ONE man in the whole damn film, and he's basically just a plot device. Nice role reversal. But, more than that, this movie centered around a group of women who are not strangers to adventure; these women are tough AF. Throughout the movie, we get to see them navigate dangerous terrain and fight freaky cave-dwelling monsters, which is hella refreshing even if they don't all survive (spoiler: one survives).

2. Related to the first point, the character dynamics are actually pretty solid. This movie isn't necessarily about the relationships between the women, but it does play a major role at certain points. There are some really poignantly disturbing moments, such as when Beth asks Sarah to euthanize her so she won't be eaten alive. There's also something really interesting about the end, when Sarah stabs Juno and leaves her behind.

3. The actual horror aspect of it is really well done. It starts out vaguely creepy and just intensifies throughout the movie. They a great job of bringing the sense of disorientation and claustrophobia that would come from such a situation to the screen. This isn't a jump-scare kind of horror movie, but a gruesome adventure where the carnage just keeps mounting.

4. There are some shots that are honestly just real pretty and/or interestingly gruesome. I'm particularly thinking about the ending shot of Sarah climbing out of the cave, having to scramble over a veritable mountain of bones to get to the surface.

The only real complaint I have about the movie is the monsters. Yes, they were freaky looking. But I'm a biologist at heart, and when Beth (or Rebecca) said the creatures were "perfectly evolved" to live in the cave, I wasn't sold. On the whole, though, this is a minor complaint. This is a solid horror movie and I will definitely be watching again.

THE DESCENT is a movie I let sit in my video library for a while before actually watching it. Not because I was scared to, but mostly because I wasn't sure if it would be as good as I'd heard. Thankfully, my fears were assuaged when this turned out to be an effectively creepy and claustrophobic horror film. I'm not particularly scared of confined spaces but I can sympathize with those who are, and this film does a great job of creating an maintaining such an atmosphere for most of its running time. The basic plot is about these six women who go on a spelunking trip in the Appalachians. As a group, they've gone on similar adventures before, but nothing quite like this. As they get farther into the cave and deeper underground they are pushed to their limits and their sanity is tested, as well as their bond of friendship. They also discover that they may not be alone. Or are they?

Generally speaking, the acting was sound and the characters were believable as a group of friends. There wasn't too much in the way of character development, but they were established well enough in the beginning that once things started to go south you cared about what happened to them. Of the six friends, only one is really given a back story, namely that her husband was killed in a freak accident after water rafting trip with a couple of her friends (who are in the main group). Her mental state is actually very important to the story, but in a way that I'll save for whoever wants to watch the film.

Other aspects of the film that I thought very well-done were the cinematography, lighting and use of space. A lot of the film takes place in a cave underground, and it made good use of natural and artificial light to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere that kept you involved in what you were watching. You often get the sense that something could come out of the shadows at any moment and, in fact, there were a number of jump scares that utilized this very effectively. Although somewhat predictable in this regard, I didn't think they were overused and were germane to the story being told. Also, considering that this is a Neil Marshall film, the gore effects were well done and suitably gross.

However, I do have a couple issues with the film as well. First, the score, while appropriate and engaging, was a little too insistent in parts. I don't really like when a film's music telegraphs how you're supposed to feel in a particular moment, and the music here gets used like that occasionally. With such a dark and claustrophobic film, I thought it would have been more effective to dial back the score a bit and let the scenes breathe a little on their own, creating a more natural sense of terror rather than inflating it with somewhat overblown instrumentation. I also thought that the story and character development could have been a bit more substantive. Instead of being rich and layered, it was minimal but effective.

Overall, despite my misgivings about the score and thin plotting, I rather enjoyed this film. It's most effective at establishing an maintaining a tense mood and claustrophobic atmosphere that really works. At no point was I ever bored, although I would scratch my head at some of the stupid things that the main characters would do. But what horror film doesn't have characters who make ill-informed decisions at one point or another? What I got out of it what is a tense and thrilling survival horror with strong (but loosely defined) female characters and their descent into madness (the title works as a double-entendre). Highly recommended for genre fans.

This review has taken me years to decide to write. The Descent was an amazing book by Jeff Long. In the book he creates an immersive world directly beneath our feet. In his book a group of characters descends into the underworld seeking answers to ontological and existential questions that have plagued mankind. The book covers a lost civilization of “Home Hadalis” and their descent and decline from the height of their own civilization, in essence the underworlds version of the Dark Ages. The team is led by Ike, a freed slave and now mercenery of the Hadals and his Nun, Ali, sent by the Vatican to prove or disprove the presence of our mythical Satan. The story follows the trail of civilization, language and intelligent design in an incredibly inventive way. The movie does it’s best to describe the adventures of some of the first explorers and first contacts with the “Hadals” or “Crawlers”. In both the book and the movie they are first portrayed in their most base element, hungry, starved and without civilization. What both the book and the movie point at, and finally brutally portray, is the lack of difference between our species. When either species is threatened they are instinctually the same. I wish the movie would have touched on any of the major themes of ontological awe, intellectual curiosity or basic world building that the book conveyed. I think had the movie had a wider scope there would have been a wider audience. That being said The Descent is a solid horror movie with good character development and amazing creature effects. It conveys the extreme suffocating anxiety of constant darkness and claustrophobia of millions of tons of earth above your head throughout the film. I’m a fan but nothing can compare to the timeless, human themes of the book.