DVD Vault: The Descent (2005)

Director Marshall raises the bar for cinematic fear-mongering

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

I must confess that when I first saw the theatrical trailer for Neil Marshall's The Descent four years ago, I was not sold by any means of the word. In fact, I picture myself rolling my eyes and wondering why these types of movies almost never stray far from the sidewalk that is typical Hollywood thrasher gore. When will I learn not to judge a book by its cover?!

First things first...this ain't your average Hollywood thrasher movie, but rather a British-made thriller-horror set in the unforgiving Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern U.S., where a group of six women gather at a cozy cabin to reminisce about days past, and to congregate over their next extreme adventure together. This comes one year after one of these women, Sarah (The Mutant Chronicles' Shauna Macdonald), lost her young daughter and husband in a cruel car accident while on a whitewater rafting expedition in Scotland.

Sarah, along with Juno (Natalie Mandoza), Beth (Alex Reid), Sam (MyAnna Buring), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) and Holly (Nora-Jane Noone)--director/screenwriter Marshall insisted on defying movie convention by assembling an all-female cast--catch up on old times the night before they set out to an unchartered--or so they thought--system of underground caves, unbeknown to most of the troupe until they find themselves unable to retrace their footsteps after a minor cave-in swallows their most recent passageway. Coerced to tread forward, the group discover primitive cave paintings and outdated climbing equipment that proves they weren't the first ones here, but they also realize that they're not alone either.

It's Sarah who first catches a glimpse of a pale, human-like creature in the near pitch-black underground, but she's unable to convince her girlfriends that it wasn't just her imagination running amuck. Before they know it these "crawlers" warrant Sarah's suspicions, and begin terrorizing the girls, biting at their flesh and dragging the mutilated bodies to their grave of skeletonized vicitms. The remaining women quickly learn that these reptilian subhumans are blind and hunt by sound, using this to their advantage, just as their survival instincts kick into high gear.

Sarah circumvents the crawlers and their subterranean Venus Flytrap, and I found myself breathing an air of relief just as she does when she pokes her bloody arm through the ground, out into the appeasing daylight. Sarah gasps as she stumbles to her vehicle, throws the keys into the ignition, and drives off to glorious freedom. If you had seen The Descent in American theatres the anxiety ends there, but the Brits don't need happy endings, which is why their version ends alternately!

Although Marshall had rejected other horror-oriented projects following the overseas success of 2002's Dog Soldiers, the England-born director couldn't avoid working on The Descent, helming one of the best samples of the genre I've ever seen. He supplies his audience with prolonged suspense, empathetic terror and unrelenting tension that ceases to obey what our urges beg of it. And like what The Blair Witch Project did for camping, or what Deliverance did for canoe rides, The Descent dares us to even consider stepping foot within a dark, underground cave...for me, at least, it's 100% outta the question!

4.5/ 5 stars