Review of Descent (2007) by E L — 27 Jul 2012

Women get an undesirable stereotype in horror movies, that they haven't been able to shake for over 50 years. They always trip, they are always slutty, and they can never do anything right. It's a typical stereotype, and Neil Marshall is able to smash it to pieces in this film. The Descent delivers some of the most disturbing, incredible, and memorable pieces of horror ever made. The horrific scenes will shake you to your core. The Descent is easily one of the best horror films ever made.

The story follows six beautiful women that go on an extreme adventure every year. The year before Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) suffers a huge tragedy when her husband and daughter die in a car crash. The only man in the film is killed off within the first five minutes, but it comes out of nowhere, like most of the scenes in this film.

Once we get a well rounded grip on who these characters are, which Marshall does amazingly fast, and thoroughly, we begin to enter the cave. Without even saying anything, we get a sense of what these characters personalities are like, just from the caving gear they are wearing. The innocent and young one is wearing pink, the sexy bad-ass one is wearing red, and the calm, relatable one is wearing light blue.

What you may not expect, but the "monsters" in this film don't come onto screen until an hour into the movie, so what is going on within the first 60 minutes...?

NOTHING, BUT PURE ADRENALINE, AND HEART POUNDING MOMENTS THAT DELIVER THE MOVIES MOST EFFECTIVE SCARES. The first half of this film is easily the scariest part of the film. We are in the dark, which effective sounds that make you shiver and clench your fists with anticipation every time the scene quiets down. If that's not enough, the claustrophobia and delusions make you shake and bite your nails. The scariest part of the film is when nothing horrific happens, but when we see these characters push their limits. Like I said this is one group of bad ass chicks that would outlive every other "classic" horror movie before.

However, when these monsters do appear, the horror aspect never leaves. The true characters come out, and the film starts to deal with psychological issues and the limit to which we would go, to survive. Of course, there's the Neil Marshall touch, with plenty of gore and killing along with it.

Once in awhile a horror movie makes you cringe and cover your eyes, but never until this film will you cringe and cover your eyes before the monsters come into play. These "six chicks with picks" slaughter the women stereotype in horror, as well as delivering some great acting chops, from no-namers. Don't get mixed up with the movie: "The Cave" that came out before this one. That film deserves to be tossed into the blood pool. Marshall gives us characters that we love, hate, and understand while all these emotions are floating around. All of this goes on as you ride along on this terrifying roller coaster of a film. Truly one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Watch out, The Shining and The Exorcist, you got a run for your money!