Review of Descent (2007) by Dynast G — 01 Apr 2015

In the follow up to his debut Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall brings out a very different film, The Descent. Following a group of all female cavers into a crazy underground world, where they encounter The Crawlers (above) humans who have evolved in the cave, that are intent on nomming the girls.

What I have to say first about this movie, is that The Crawlers are only half the bad here, claustrophobia is the other. When a film makes me feel even the slightest bit afraid, it's worth making a big deal of, as I could probably count these events on one hand. The Crawlers get some the best shock-scares I've ever seen, sure, but it's the cave itself that really effected me.

Craig Conway (Dog Soldiers, Doomsday, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather) plays the main Creeper (dubbed Scar), and he just unleashes the role upon the audience, he is incredible, as always. Though he has no lines, and not much screen time, he manages to own the film with what he has.

Demonstrating his mastery of suspense and build up, Neil Marshall does a fantastic job of building you up and knocking you down. Though there was a few cave type movies that came out at the time (The Cave, The Cavern, Catacombs) Marshall's film stood out in leaps and bounds above the others.

What I don't love is how pointlessly this film was set in America. Seriously, it's pretty much an all UK cast, with a British director, filming in a British style, a very British horror. Honestly the first couple of times around watching this I didn't even notice that they magically teleported to the states. Also the American version of this film has a different ending, personally I feel happy endings are a cheap cop-out, so I much prefer the other regions, which thankfully we get.

Again I apologise for the weakness of this review, I was actually really fucking stoked with the first one I wrote. Grrrr. Such is life I guess.

-Gimly.