Review of The Descent (2005) by James W — 07 Apr 2014

The scariest horror movies of all time, The Descent not only delivers dread, claustrophobia and heart pounding shocks, it benefits from incredibly realistic and devoted performances from the best female lead cast, here is a huge thumbs up to Shauna McDonald, Natalia Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring and Nora-Jane Moore who play best friends on a caving expedition which takes a deadly turn as they are trapped and pursued by a bloodthirsty subterranean breed of predators.

It takes a good 45 minutes before you get the first glimpse of what's lurking in the shadows, but before that Director Neil Marshall expertly stirs dread layer by layer as the girls venture deeper and deeper, and if you're claustrophobic avoid this, even if you're not you'll still have a hard time squeezing past these tight moments.

The Descent features one of my favourite scenes in a movie where Juno can't find a way out as there's no breeze, surrounded by several tunnels Rebecca screams out for help in the never-ending darkness, and as the night vision camera pans to Rebecca, a disfigured and horrific looking creature stands behind her, the girls scream and seperate and the survival games begin.

What follows on is a masterpiece story of survival and the lengths we will go to, there are moments that are both visceral yet hard on the emotions and some nasty twists that look hopeful for the characters when really this nightmare will never end.

I screamed out loud, swearing in horror yet was absolutely thrilled by this utter master in terror, you must watch The Descent.