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The Descent (2005): In Cinemas-Trailer Included
The Descent: Released November 23
Poster: In Cinemas November 23
Starring: Saskia Mulder, Nora Jane Noone, Alex Reid, Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Jackson Mendanoza, Molly Kayll
Cinematographer: Sam McCurdy
“I'm an English teacher, not fucking Tomb Raider”-Beth
Neil Marshall follows up the fun action/horror/comedy Dog Soldiers with a straight down the line plunge into tension. Slowly and painfully it builds as we go deeper into the earth, the closer to the core, the more insecure we feel.
Going after our primal, genetic phobias the film opens with a shock and tragedy for our young protagonist Sarah (Shauna MacDonald).
Jump to one year later and in attempt to deal with the trauma, she decides to go on a girls own adventure with five of her friends.
Taking its time to set up the characters and establish the group dynamic we meet Sarah s best friend Beth, a school teacher. There is also a medical student, a pot head and a tag along.
Rounding out the crew is alpha female Juno (Aussie actress Natalie Jackson Medoza) a flexible, professional rock climber who will lead the girls on an amateur spelunking expedition into the Appalachian Mountains.
We follow the girls up into the daunting landscape and soon the nerve rattling begins as they make there way deep into the labyrinth of claustrophobic caverns filled with darkness and inevitable disorientation.
“Hey, there's something down here...”-Holly
Crawling through the tight, cold cliffs, trying to remain calm, unable to see their hands in front of their faces, something is lurking just beyond view.
“One bat, two bats, fifty bats!”-Holly
"Oh shit, is that who I think it is? Damn, it's Osama Bin Laden's cave!"
John Doe says:
A massive hit in England and the U.S, I got this one from the UK on DVD a while ago, no idea why it has taken so long to get to our sunny shores. Especially when you consider it already spawned a pair of remakes with The Cave and The Cavern.
Exclusively designed to unnerve and cause squirms: like when you were 7 years old, sneaking up the stairs and peeking through split finger at the forbidden slasher flick playing on some late night movie marathon.
Not that this is a slasher flick, quite the opposite, there are plenty of “boo” jump out of your seat scares, but its the drilling under your skin and getting inside your head horror that lifts this to must see status.
The fear comes from what hides in the shadows, it all about the pea soup atmosphere and intense mood created by the cinematography and sound design.
By the time the carnage and gore flow, the film is relentless, praying on our investment in the characters and satisfying our bloodlust.
The cast of relative unknowns all get down and dirty with their roles and the fact that there is really only one Ripley protégé in the bunch adds to the suspense. We can truly empathize with a bunch of city girls out of their element, caught in a life and death struggle.
The promise of a solid shit scaring is a tempting one.
Do you think I enjoyed it? Damn right, there are so few quality horror films that come our way whenever one does poke its head up out of the primordial ooze it runs the risk of being over hyped.
The horror genre is just as subjective as comedy, what tickles or repels us is very personal and depends very much on what we have seen and done in our own lives.
I say this because there have been many beloved horrors I have not dug and sometimes I wonder if it isn’t because of expectation, What do you think?? Can expectations of a good fright ruin a film.
Check out the trailer below.
Please visit Bryn and read his Descent Review here, for another point of view.
Film & TV on DVD
The more interest we can generate in this the better. Maybe then Neil Marshal's next flick will arrive on time.
I heard a horrible rumour they are making a Dog Soldiers 2 without the writer/Director, now thats frightening.
Earache Hotel
I saw this ages ago on a teeny tiny computer screen and loved it. I told my friends about it, expecting it to come out here shortly afterwards, but then the bloody Cave came out, which I thought was The Descent with a different name, but turned out to be some sort of action movie remake. Confusing.
Anyways, I'm glad it's finally out. I'm trying to expose as many people to it as possible. Hope it's as good on the big screen as it was on that tiny monitor.
Film & TV on DVD
the Descent was excellent on the big screen, clastophobic and dripping menace.
Pissed me off too that they released the remakes before the original.
I am trying to spread the word about it and hopefully my blog gets people excited about it.
Bryn also did an excellent review for the film here