The
Descent (2006)
Rated R
Starring: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza,
and Alex Reid
Rating:

out
of

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One
year after a car accident claimed the life of her husband and daughter,
Sarah (Shauna MacDonald), packs up and goes on a spelunking expedition
with five friends in the wilderness of North Carolina. The trip is meant
to be as much of a bonding experience between the six women, who vacation
together doing risky things like whitewater rafting and rock climbing,
as it is part of the healing process for Sarah.
After
a rockslide closes the exit of the cave they're exploring, Juno (Natalie
Mendoza) reveals that the cave is not the easy, tourist-friendly cavern
she told them they'd be visiting but rather a new system of caves that
she intended to have them explore and then claim as their own discovery.
As such, with the entrance closed off and no map of the cave, they're
trapped underground. If that wasn't bad enough, they soon learn that
they're not alone. Someone
or
something
is
down there with them and
apparently has a taste for flesh.
Had
I known that The Descent was written and directed by Neil
Marshall, the man responsible for Dog
Soldiers,
I wouldn't have waited until it was released on DVD to see it. Dog
Soldiers was a nifty B-movie horror tale with genre reference-laden
dialogue that was a smart as it was funny.
The
Descent eschews any comedic attributes and concentrates on
creating a claustrophobic and desperate atmosphere in which to drop the
female cave divers. Working with an obviously larger budget than he had
on Dog Soldiers, Marshall, along with cinematographer Sam McCurdy,
keeps piling on the tension and doesn't let up until the end.
Don't
make the mistake of confusing this with 2005's The Cave, which was a
complete waste of time. The Descent is an entertaining horror movie that
proves that Neil Marshall is a force to be reckoned with in the genre. Trivia: The
cast members were taken to a rock-climbing center in Derbyshire to help
prepare them for filming. (Source: The
Internet Movie Database)
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