The Descent Ascends Scarier Than Good

     The Descent presents several very scary moments. These moments are not your typical startles but actually legitimate scares – the kind not easily found at your neighborhood multiplex. Had the movie featured a more interesting group of characters and the story not been somewhat tainted by confusingly unrelated events, The Descent could have been a horror masterpiece. Instead, it will have to make due with just being scary.

     That is nothing to underestimate, though. As a horror fan, I know how hard it is to find a horror movie that offers anything truly frightening. The Descent is more than truly frightening – it is downright bloodcurdling. The thing that makes The Descent so scary is the setting, a pitch-black cave in which there is no known way out. Watching the flick in a dark movie theatre makes one feel as though they are right there inside of the cave… with the ugly creatures.

     As for said creatures, they aren’t really needed to make The Descent a thrilling motion picture. The movie is gripping enough with the dangers of being lost inside of a cave. However, when the creatures appear, The Descent turns into a completely different feature film. It goes from being gripping to terrifying. Blood and gore are quite plentiful as well but, much like the creatures, you can’t see much due to the darkness of the cave. I honestly don’t think you would want to see anymore than is visible, though.

     On the other hand, The Descent tumbles quite a bit on its way to the scares. The characters fail to be distinctive enough to get to know or even tell apart. The motion picture could take a lesson from a horror flick like Jeepers Creepers which features characters that are as unusual as they are intriguing. After all, most horror flicks are driven by their characters (even if at times they are stereotypical). The Descent is hardly an exception, either, since the prologue sets up the main character’s background and a great deal of the storyline depends on the characters’ relationships with each other.

     The Descent begins with a tragic car accident that kills a woman’s husband and children. One year later, the woman, Sarah played by Shauna Macdonald, is on her way to a weekend escape with some of her closest friends. The women travel to a cave and begin their exploration. When they start to get lost, the women discover that the cave is not the one they had intended to investigate and is actually a completely undiscovered region. Soon, a collapse blocks their entry (and thus only known exit) and the women find themselves trapped within the cave. Just when it seems that things can’t get any worse, the women learn that they are being hunted by a bunch of gruesome creatures.

     I had the opportunity to screen the original uncut version of The Descent that was released in the U.K. There are rumors that the film is going to have 90 seconds chopped off of its finale for its release in the United States. Such an edit sounds like it wouldn’t change much but those 90 seconds are integral to the entire plot. Without them, the movie lacks a certain discussion-provoking element. I refuse to spoil the ending either way, but I do hope that Lions Gate leaves the ending completely intact.

     Quite frankly, The Descent is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. It’s just a shame it isn’t a better one.