Descent (2006)

BeyondTheGrave · December 28, 2006, 07:43:08 PM

The movie starts out as three women have a traumatic experience in a car accident and deiced to take a trip with three other women to a underground cave. After they get screwed over by the leader of the group and getting stuck in the cave after a cave in they have to find a way out. They soon run into vampire like creatures they make their escape even more diffcult.

The main thing I like to say about this movie is ITS NOT THE END ALL OF HORROR MOVIES AND NOT THE BEST IN DECADES. Sorry I had to put that in caps but damn I'm getting tired of hearing how great it is.

While its better than the recent crop of horror/remake movies its not "all that".

As a Horror/Escapist/Monster/Gory film its solid in all it areas. The characters are throw away expect the two main women. The monsters are cool but hardly a threat. They go down pretty easy when the girls get into a fights with them. It was cool to see a all women cast but it didn't really add much to the film.

The ending was a bit of a surprise and I did like it.

Even with all the negative things I said it is a enjoyable flick. Its not going blow away any of the real hardcore horror fans (I suspect all the craze for this film is just from casual horror/movie fans). I do reccomend it for a rent but can't see anyone getting this for a purchase or anyone raving about this years from now.

Andrew · December 28, 2006, 07:49:13 PM

I had avoided this after being burned by "The Cave." Maybe I should give it a try.

BeyondTheGrave · December 28, 2006, 07:56:09 PM

Quote from: Andrew on December 28, 2006, 07:49:13 PM
I had avoided this after being burned by "The Cave." Maybe I should give it a try.

I have seen the "The Cave" and its no comparsion. "Descent" had a more feeling of been trapped and monster where much better.

Andrew · December 28, 2006, 08:03:22 PM

Of course I picked the painfully bad one, with all the cliches and so little in the realm of original ideas that I was bored 30 minutes into it. I put "Descent" on my list, though it is behind a few other titles. Thanks again for the heads up.

Shadow · December 28, 2006, 08:13:48 PM

Anyone catch that other ultra cheap underground terror film - The Cavern? If you didn't like The Cave, it will probably do nothing for you, aside from inducing nausea or an urge to kill...or both. Plus, it has a rather distasteful ending.

I had forgotten that The Descent was now out on DVD. After hearing so much about it for so long, I feel compelled to add it to the Netflix queue asap.

BeyondTheGrave · December 28, 2006, 08:32:41 PM

One more thing I liked to add about the flim: It did have a old-school horror vibe. Theirs no MTV style editing camera etc. and little to no CGI.It is rated R which is a automatic plus for horror movie nowdays.

Dr. Whom · December 29, 2006, 03:46:15 AM

I saw it a couple of weeks ago on DVD and well, it doesn't live up to the hype. It takes forever to get going, and it delights in startling the audience. There are forever things jumping unexpectedly out of the dark, or people falling in holes, or creature dangling from the ceiling. If you are quite jumpy (as I am), this gets to you.

That being said, it is still a very enjoyable film. It is quite atmospheric, and the whole claustrophobic experience is very well done. The group dynamics are also interesting. The tensions between the two main characters are as much of a threat to survival, as the creatures themselves.

Definitely worth viewing.

Jim H · December 29, 2006, 02:09:47 PM

I thought it was quite solid, though not like the best horror film ever or anything. One thing I will say is it plays out much better on much larger screens. They have a lot of shots early on that build tension and atmosphere that will have like one spot of light where a character is crawling through a little hole and the rest is solid blackness. It just doesn't work as well on the small screen.

Also, the killing and action scenes (which are deliberately hard to follow) are even more confusing on a small screen.

I'd still give the film an 8/10 though.

BeyondTheGrave · December 29, 2006, 02:28:13 PM

The thing is about the movie it was overhyped beyond belief. Not just from the media but from people. I looked at some reviews from Netflix and I felt like saying "Do you people watch movies?". I'm not trying to be a horror movie snob whos seen it all (far from the truth) but I couldn't understand the overwhelming craze over it. Better than "Hostel" or "Saw" flims but I just don't get it.

Spastic_Immortal · December 29, 2006, 09:35:02 PM

Quote from: rich andrini on December 28, 2006, 08:32:41 PM
One more thing I liked to add about the flim: It did have a old-school horror vibe. Theirs no MTV style editing camera etc. and little to no CGI.It is rated R which is a automatic plus for horror movie nowdays.

Wha? They'res all sorts of MTV style shaky cam when the creatures show up, so much so that it's hard to tell what's going on with the "action". It's a typical tactic used by low budget directors to keep the eye away from effects that might not stand up to close scrutiny, and on top of that makes your average actor seem like a world class ass kicker. We must have seen 2 different movies.

But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

BeyondTheGrave · December 29, 2006, 10:51:51 PM

Quote from: Spastic_Immortal on December 29, 2006, 09:35:02 PM
Quote from: rich andrini on December 28, 2006, 08:32:41 PM
One more thing I liked to add about the flim: It did have a old-school horror vibe. Theirs no MTV style editing camera etc. and little to no CGI.It is rated R which is a automatic plus for horror movie nowdays.

Wha? They'res all sorts of MTV style shaky cam when the creatures show up, so much so that it's hard to tell what's going on with the "action". It's a typical tactic used by low budget directors to keep the eye away from effects that might not stand up to close scrutiny, and on top of that makes your average actor seem like a world class ass kicker. We must have seen 2 different movies.

But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Well when they were fighting I could understand. It is a horror movie not a fighting type movie. For some reason I thought it was done well compared to other movies.

BoyScoutKevin · December 30, 2006, 09:58:46 AM

Actually, not to give anything away, but there are actually two endings to the film. There is the British ending, which is darker, and the American ending, which is not quite so dark.

And if you liked this one, you may also like the director's/writer's "Dog Soldiers," as they were both done by the same man, Neil Marshall.

Jack · December 30, 2006, 10:55:22 AM

I've been wanting to pick that up for quite a while. Thanks for the heads-up on it not living up to the hype; when I eventually get it I'll try to cut it some slack. And I still want to get The Cave, no matter how many people say it's not any good, the trailer was awesome! It can't be that bad...can it?

Susan · December 30, 2006, 08:42:24 PM

I just watched this movie, having never heard of it...and had NO idea what it was about. Yep I was quite suprised, the setting was very eerie and it preyed on our worst fears - the dark.

The movie was good, it was actually SCARY. The creatures were scary and while they were bat-like it had a very zombie like feel. Except they move much faster.<s> The only thing i didn't get was if they didn't rely on smell or sight how they could tell one of them apart from one of the women ...since they are some sort of mutant of a human but nonetheless have the same body size and shape. Anyhow...

The downer for me was the ending, mostly because it was an odd timing thing. I would have been satisified with a number of endings, including sarah waking up covered in blood and having gone into some mad fit of hallucinations and prescription drugs, imagined the whole thing and killed all her friends herself..lol The whole storyline with her daughter dying in the beginning really didn't tie in well enough, it seemed to be illustrating the idea of friends sticking with eachother i guess and not leaving eachother behind. I dunno..just gimmie mutants and a dark cave and that's all I need. Anyone else not like the ending? I didn't hate it, I just...again...think that it was a weird way to end it and left too many questions

A lot of gross-out scenes, and true claustrophobia. I knew what was coming in some scenes but i was still gripping my pillow, truly folks i don't scare easy but i have to admit movies that take place in the DARK scare me. Having just finished watching the film i came on to see if anyone had already started a topic on this movie.

Something i think that most of the badmovies readers would enjoy, so grab the popcorn. Yeah, it's worth renting. Btw, how did I miss this in theaters?

BeyondTheGrave · December 30, 2006, 09:15:03 PM

Susan I agree with the ending. It took me by surprise what she did to her"friend" and I liked it but your right they tried to tie in with the begining which at that point was like why? It was too little too late.