The Descent Review

This movie reminded me a lot of "Wolf Creek" It starts very conventional and boring in the beginning (aside from the death in the beginning) but then starts building up adrenaline as it progress. This film is far, far better (and has more surprises) than some of the lackluster flicks like "Hills Have Eyes", and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning". The man who directed it Neil Marshall hadn't directed a film in three years prior to this but, he showed no rust here.

One thing that does stand out this flick from the other garbage (When A Stranger Calls another trash flick) is the fact that this is an all female cast. Think about that for a sec, there haven't been that many horror flicks with an all female cast, well at least ones that haven't been this good to me.

Reading some of Neil Marshall's interview on the film and his directing is also interesting. While he had planned to make the movie after "Dog Soldiers", nothing really happened. That might actually have been a good thing because he describes working through several drafts of the movie. Having gone through so many, it's conceivable that the first draft may not have been developed as the product fans have seen.

The great thing about this movie that sets apart the other garbage released when it came out was  the fact that the characters in the movie are all sympathetic and well rounded. We give a crap about them. That's a key thing that many directors even the big ones miss many times.

Shauna MacDonald and Natalie Mendoza who plays Sarah and Juno are absolute fantastic. Natalie has acted in tv shows and movies, but this probably her leading role to date and she really carries this flick along with her co-stars. The story about the girls on a caving expedition is very simple, but once you see the terror that they deal with, both the creatures and terrain they are on, you see it's a very complicated script.

As far as the endings for the flick, well I don't see them as a big deal. I figured out how things were going to turn after the accidental death of one of the girls. I wasn't disappointed at all in this flick. It has great acting, action, suspense and for a movie that had such a small budget , Neil really did a fantastic job.

Anyhow, glad I finally saw it and I would recommend to others who still haven't seen it.