** This review contains spoilers. **
Sarah’s husband and child died in a tragic
car accident a year ago. Now, her estranged friends come together with her to
go on their annual caving trip. It’s a little awkward at first because they
hadn’t seen each other since the accident, but that’s quickly over as they
spend a night of drinking and reminiscing together. The next day, they head out
to Borum Caverns, an easy, tourist level cave. They go there to find a much
more difficult cave and end up trapped inside due to an avalanche. They start
to panic and turn on each other. One of them becomes injured because of her own
recklessness, making it imperative that they get to the surface. An unforeseen obstacle
rears its ugly head in subterranean humanoid creatures that attack with
ferocity and hunger. Can these six women battle these dangerous creatures and
make it to the surface alive?
I saw posters for The Descent during its
theatrical run in the US and I dismissed it as another cheesy, lame horror
film. A few years later, my sister recommended it to me and I watched it in
total darkness, enhancing the scares and the film’s already creepy atmosphere.
The Descent is a frightening and claustrophobic film that features both
realistic and supernatural scares. The first half of the film has no
supernatural elements at all. The scares stem from narrowly escaping being
crushed in an avalanche and trying to find a way out of the undiscovered cave
while trying to keep calm despite practically certain death. Then the
cannibalistic cave dwelling creatures appear and all hell breaks loose. The six
women struggle to fight off these monsters and find a way out as their numbers
dwindle, making their true natures emerge.
The six women in this film each have their
own strong personalities and back stories that are established when they meet
at a cabin the night before. When they are put under the stress of being
trapped, they turn on Juno, the woman responsible for misleading the group and
dooming them to certain death. Despite their fear and hopelessness, these women
are incredibly resourceful and strong, even in the face of monsters. The
monsters cause some of them to lose their humanity in order to fight back as ferociously
and survive, Sarah and Juno in particular. Sarah goes from emotionally crippled
and barely functional to bad ass creature killer. She puts aside her fear and
emotion until only her anger remains. Juno is the opposite. She starts out
strong until she accidentally murders one of her friends in the heat of battle.
Afterwards, she keeps physically strong, but her fear and guilt eat at her. Sarah
stabs Juno in the leg and leaves her for dead surrounded by creatures as
revenge for everything that happened. Is it Sarah who has turned into a morally
devoid monster and killed her friend? Or is Juno the villain, whose
carelessness and cockiness cost her friends their lives? There is no clear
answer to who is more justified or who ultimately is the hero of the film.
The Descent is one of the best horror films
I’ve ever seen. It’s a perfect mix of suspense and gore that works harmoniously
in a way I haven’t seen before. Through the supernatural aspect, it shows how
quickly the behaviors and constructs of civilization fall away to basic,
animalistic survival instincts. The women that make up the entire cast are well
written and wonderfully crafted, dynamic characters. I highly recommend this
film, but urge you to watch the UK ending and ignore the US ending.
My rating: 10/10 fishmuffins
4 comments:
ah, Titania - you picked a GREAT one!!
I love the Descent and have re-watched it a few times, wonderful story line, directing, spec effects plus those gals' acting was spot on.
Unfortunately, movies like the Descent only serve to reinforce my claustrophobia/fear of spelunking :O
Brrr, remember the scene when that one girl became stuck ... it made me want to run outside and take deep, non-cave breaths hahaha
And you're right, it was amazing to see Sarah's metamorphis. Have you seen the Descent 2?? It was pretty decent, but not as epic as the first movie imo :)
Probably won't see this one because just reading horror freaks me out and watching it would be even worse. But I had to comment on that first part. What kind of friends are these if they can't be bothered to every so often check in on their friend who lost her whole family???
Smiles!
Lori
I don't know what I would've done if I was in Sarah's situation. I'm against revenge but man, Juno wasn't giving her reasons to want her to survive. To find out in the middle of all that chaos that Juno had been having sex with her husband, to hear Juno say that she "wasn't the only one to lose something" knowing she was talking about how she lost her lover who was Sarah's husband and saying that knowing Sarah also lost her only child and both husband and child died within inches of her, hearing from one of her dying friends that Juno was the one that harmed her, and knowing that Juno was the one that led them into that horror cave. I actually do like Juno as a character but if I was Sarah I would hate Juno with a fiery passion.
Since you are a feminist blog, what was your opinion on the perceived metaphors in the movie? That the cave represented the womb and the creatures were unwanted fetuses killing the empowered women one by one and the only survivor was the mother that had a child taken from her.
Niala: I think that's an interesting interpretation of the film, but I didn't really think about it in that particular way. I read it as the monsters aren't real, but represent the conflicts and grudges between the women.
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