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British writer-director Neil Marshall made a splash in 2002 with the cult favourite Dog Soldiers. With his follow-up feature, The Descent, Marshall has raised his game several notches and proved he is among the best horror filmmakers in the business. Benefitting from truly remarkable cinematography, several iconic images, and a level of believability that rarely ebbs, The Descent is a creepy, white-knuckle horror offering in which even the cheap "boo!" moments are so expertly executed that they cause a jolt. Paying homage to an array of horror favourites, from Deliverance and Carrie to The Shining and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Marshall has arguably delivered the scariest genre flick since the '80s. For horror fans, this is a movie you cannot afford to miss.
The premise of The Descent is straightforward enough: one year after losing both her husband and daughter in an unfortunate car accident, the emotionally traumatised Sarah (Macdonald) joins a group of her closest girlfriends on a recreational cave trekking expedition. Alas, their adventure quickly transforms into a nightmare when a cave-in cuts them off from the only known exit. Making matters worse, it turns out that the group's de facto leader, Juno (Mendoza), has intentionally led the girls into an unmapped cave system. This turns out to be the least of their worries, however. They soon realise they are not alone, and there's a reason why the cave system has remained unmapped - it's home to a species of creature perfectly adapted for hunting in the dark. And what they hunt is other humans...
Seasoned horror fans should easily recognise the old dark house motif of The Descent, since the majority of the proceedings take place in a labyrinthine set of pitch black caves. Tension is effectively amplified in these low visibility areas, both before and after the creatures make their first appearance. Rest assured that from the moment of the group's first run-in with the crawlers, the thrills never let up as The Descent descends into a gripping bloodbath. For best effect, Marshall opted to utilise make-up and actors rather than CGI to bring the nasties to life, and their predatory assault on the women is the kind of stuff that horror is all about. Also, during this section, paranoia between the main characters is augmented as the film explores the absence of loyalty as well as the theme of mental instability. Crackerjack suspense sequences stem from this, along with an element that's more laudable than effective horror pandemonium: genuine unpredictability.
For a genre flick, one of the most impressive aspects of The Descent is the restraint and patience exhibited by writer-director Marshall as the story is set up. Sure, some stomach-churning gore is thrown in before the opening credits are over, yet this violence functions as a warning to viewers: don't get too comfortable. While the centrepiece of The Descent is the struggle between the creatures and the girls, the blind carnivores don't begin attacking until about an hour of the running time has elapsed. However, this isn't to say that a viewer is required to endure an hour of boredom before the carnage kicks in - during the lead-up, Marshall develops six strong, albeit not terribly deep female characters in interesting, well-written ways. Once they venture underground, Marshall keeps the suspense high with cave-ins and bone-crunching falls. Add to this a claustrophobic atmosphere, and the audience is on the edge of their seat by the time the creatures make their terrifying first appearance. Also, by the time the six women are being hunted, we've gotten to know them and we care about them. Once they begin falling victim to the crawlers, none of them go down easily. Nobody acts out of character, and there are no eye-rolling moments of ill-advised actions. It helps that all the actors are sincere and committed in their respective roles.
Since Neil Marshall had a relatively low budget to work with, the writer-director was forced to make the most of what he had, and he's especially efficient once the characters have descended into the incessant darkness of the caves and he can shroud the frame in blackness. These techniques heighten the tension as there's a lot of real estate for the creatures to inhabit. Even more effective are the different sources of illumination inside the caves: red flares, a video camera on night vision, glow-sticks, and torches. In the caves, these are the only sources of illumination, hence shots are imbued with a great deal of darkness. Meanwhile, the intensely claustrophobic cinematography generates an aura of suffocating tightness which places viewers right between the rocks, allowing one to viscerally feel Sarah's shortness of breath and terror as if it was one's own. Anyone with claustrophobia issues will chew their fingernails to the bone as they watch the women navigate their way through the impossibly snug cave passages; plunging further and further into pitch blackness. It truly feels as if you're inside a real cave, not a set in a studio. On top of this is David Julyan's exceptional, memorable score, which brilliantly alternates between tense and affecting.
What makes The Descent such a memorable horror film is a terrific attention to the components of fear and a focus on character as opposed to cheap scares. It's not perfect, of course (a subplot about Sarah's husband having an affair with Juno mars the pacing at times, and there are a few dumb clichés which should've been excised), but it's cut above Hollywood's usual genre output. Of course, gore-hounds won't be disappointed with the film, since it's filled with blood and viscera, but the name of Marshall's game is keeping the audience on the edge of their seats rather than grossing people out, and he achieves this end superbly. It's refreshing to know there are still filmmakers who remember that all the best horror movies are supposed to be thrilling and unsettling, rather than gory for the sake of gore.
8.6/10
