The Descent (2005)

I’ve been in this weird horror obsession and picking the worst times to start and/or finish them (aka in the middle of the night).  Next up, we have a fairly more recent movie blogger that I’ve followed from Liam at Liam Does Film. After a recent review of The Hole (find HERE), he recommended to me a few British horror.  The Descent was the one I chose to watch with no prior knowledge at all because Netflix seemed to think it was something I’d like also ;).  Let’s check it out!

Director: Neil Marshall

Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone

A year after Sarah’s (Shauna Macdonald) tragic accident where she loses her husband and her daughter, one of her extreme adventurist friends Juno (Natalie Mendoza) invites her and her best friend Beth (Alex Reid) to go on a cave exploration trip with two other friends and sisters, Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) and Sam (MyAnna Buring) along with her new prodigy and risk taker Holly (Nora-Jane Noone).  When a cave tunnel collapses, leaving them with limited supplies and an unknown escape plan, They try to preserve as much as possible to find the way out, however, they encounter living creatures that are also hunting them.  Will they find the escape before they are hunted and killed by these unknown beings?

You know what The Descent reminded me of? Alien vs. Predators or something like that (you know, exploration and creatures).  Of course, we’re not dealing with aliens but man, this movie was INTENSE! The environment and atmosphere mixed with the tone and a good balance of noise and silence made this movie so creepy.  Plus, it wasn’t just a horror survival story, but also a story of friendship and revenge. The human nature is also a scary thing, my friends, and many of us do know that, right?

I don’t know any of the cast prior to seeing them here.  The cast of the six women were fantastic.  Most horror movies always have irritating characters and especially when in these type of movies, its just yelling and screaming and just retarded actions, but in this one, every single decision made by the characters and everything they did, emoted and reacted to was valid, made sense and they each balanced each other out perfectly.  The characters were so well thought out. In these claustrophobic horrors, they are our actual focus and they help every bit of it.

Now, we can’t get through this review without talking a bit about the creatures which are crawly things.  I don’t want to talk too much about it because it is the surprise of how they look that might make this horror flick rise above other things.  Its not like sharks, you know. These creatures were not exactly scary-looking but the fact that they were so unpredictable and new.  Just like when we’re learning about a new species, right? We wonder about how they move and why they are attacking them.  Plus, its set in caves, therefore limited light so its always a mystery where they could pop out of, among all the isolated sounds around them here and there.

This pic is way brighter than it was in the movie itself…

Honestly, all I want to say is that its f’ing awesome and that you should go checking it out! I’m not an expert in horror but I hope to understand it a bit more.  If most creatures/predators horror movies are this good, man, I’d be a very busy bee! This had everything done really well: atmosphere, tone, cast and creatures!

Thanks to Liam for suggesting it! Run on over and check out his blog if you haven’t yet!

Any other creatures horror movies you’d like to recommend (preferably on Netflix or somewhere I can stream). But if not, I’d take it anyways! I’ll just do a shopping spree in bargain bins and hope to find it 😉  I already did my first sweep yesterday and managed to get a good few for a decent price :)More recommendations please!

Oh and do you think I should follow through with The Descent 2 during this month?