THE DESCENT
Way Above Average Sci-Fi/Horror Film is This Generation's 'ALIEN' and is a MUST-SEE!
THE DESCENT-R-2006-99mins. Stars Shauna Macdonald and Natalie Mendoza Directed by Neil Marshall
Rating-**** You didn’t misread- I awarded this film four stars. Not since ALIENS have I seen such a well made sci-fi/ action/ thriller. This film is extremely well made, well acted and intelligent. It’s also haunting, extremely bloody, frightening, sad and disturbing. It works both as a standard science fiction/ horror story and as a psychological thriller with our main character coming to terms with her grief and fear while trying to survive an extremely dire situation. The premise is simple enough. A group of female friends embark on a caving expedition into unexplored terrain but as they get deeper into the cave they find that they are not alone and are being hunted by strange bat-like, ravenous creatures. That alone wouldn’t be enough for a successful film but wisely, the writers add in elements of betrayal and psychology. The ‘leader’ of the expedition, a cocky, tough, veteran explorer named Juno (Mendoza, in an excellent performance) hasn’t been truthful to her friends and hasn’t properly mapped out the cave or told them that it’s never been explored before- she’s also capable of worse-much worse-as we come to find out. It turns into survival of the fittest as the friends are picked off one by one until just two remain. What happens then, is shocking. The ending will haunt you long after the film ends. This movie totally blew me away because I was expecting so little and got so much. This is a top notch movie and is in my top twenty. Why? Because it isn’t often that an intelligent, really frightening horror movie comes along that isn’t just blood and guts and teenagers being hacked up. Watching this years expedition horror flick ’The Ruins’ I was reminded of this film which is so much better on every level. A must see for all sci-fi horror buffs out there.
