Like most horror films, The Descent started off terribly, with cinematography that’s reminiscent of a British television show. It begins with a family rafting trip, a car crash killing the family immediately after. A year later, the main character Sarah (whose family has been killed) escapes her nightmares by going on a caving trip in the Appachalian Mountains.
Like most horror movies, the acting was stilted and amateur and there was a lack of character development or plot preceeding the action. This is what you may expect with horror movies but it took at least half an hour before you even worked out what any of the six characters’ names were.
In true horror movie fashion, things only got interesting when the party of six entered the creepy location, that being the bowels of a cave. Macho character Juno, who’s like an Asian Lara Croft, leads the party in gung ho fashion down the wrong cave.
It’s obvious that things are going to get bad and this is emphasised when Sarah gets stuck and starts having a panic attack before she is saved by the stronger Juno.
The mystery soon begins when Sarah sees a skeleton-like figure down a cave corridoor. Disbelief from the other characters quickly drains away as the party are surrounded by a whole lot of goblin-like creatures who promptly kill two of them and split the party in two.
Things soon begin to get absurd as the film goes a bit Dungeons and Dragons like, as Juno starts acting like a barbarian, Sarah acts like a neutral cleric, another hides like a rogue and they all start kicking goblin butt.
Claustrophobia is the strength of this film, however there are too many unoriginal ‘boo’ moments to shock the audience and a plot twist at the end that wasn’t entirely convincing. If you like the sight of six chicks being disembowled by cave monsters, then this film is for you.
NEIL MARSHALL