The Descent

The Descent has a promising start, but director Neil Marshall wastes it all and turns it into just one of many horror movies that are out there these days.

The movie starts one year ago. Sarah suffered a horrific car accident in which she lost both her husband and her daughter. A year later, her friend, Juno, who seemed to have some kind of complicit relationship with Sarah’s husband, organizes a caving expedition as a way for Sarah and all the friends to start afresh. Thus six young women embark on an adventure that may never see them come back. Soon after they descend into the cave, they find themselves trapped and that’s when the movie becomes really interesting. It is mesmerizing to watch them struggle with nature and see different personalities clash in time of danger. However, half way into the movie, Marshall has to introduce some kind of cave-dwelling, flesh-eating monsters to spoil the adventure. It soon just descends into another blood fest with the monsters and becomes indistinguishable with hundreds of other monster horror movies. It becomes completely unwatchable for someone as weak-hearted as me. The movie’s ending is simple nonsensical. What a shame!

All six actresses are believable as athletic types, but none of them really stands out and becomes memorable except the one who plays Juno looks very much like ET hottie Vanessa Minnillo and another actress who is a spitting image of Kelly Ripa.

By the way, I find The Descent poster very cleverly designed and it reflects the theme of the movie perfectly – six young women descending and forming a skull shape. Unfortunately, the movie is a lot more than just one image and Marshall fails to sustain the momentum he builds in the first half.