Review of Descent (2005) by Myron A — 18 Aug 2012

I tend to love horror movies that rely on tension rather than gore to drive their point home. This movie doesn't necessarily shy away from gore, but it does deliver mountains of justified tension and raw emotion.

It's shot beautifully. The first third of the film capitalizes on the picturesque shooting location, and gives viewers something other than the fact that they're watching a horror movie to enjoy. Just now looking back on it, the pacing felt natural and well thought out. This can be partially attributed to the the extremely talented cast. All of their performances flowed excellently. It was fun to watch what was once their initially bouncy camaraderie gradually thin throughout the film. All of them are above average actors.

I love how Neil Marshall and Alex Reid were able to explore/exploit the themes of personal loss, animalistic assimilation, alienation, revenge, claustrophobia, and even just how creepy the earth itself can be. There were several scenes where I found myself cringing at just the slightest bit of dust falling down the screen.

While watching, I was reminded several times of the fact that although this was indeed a horror movie, with six female leads, mind you, none of them were annoyingly stupid or insupportably helpless (as is the unfortunate norm in most horror movies). In fact, all of their characters are independent, athletic spelunkers. I couldn't help but draw a quick parallel between this film and 'Bridesmaids' in that regard.

The Descent also has a bit of fun factor. If you're the type of person who had a lot of fun watching Sam Raimi's 'Drag Me To Hell', you'll get something out of this experience too, even if it is a bit less campy.

It's never really that scary, and does submit to conventional jump scares from time to time. At times, it's a bit too bloody when it doesn't need to be. But overall, it's bloody brilliant.