Descent (2006)

[Susan]

Rich.



SPOILER ALERT
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What she did to her friend actually seemed believable, kind of th whole "screw you for not being a true friend". The ending part which really bothered me was the fact that she woke up at the end, and she was covered in blood. Presumably the scene where she crawled out of the bloodpit and all you hear are screams in the back. Obvciously it's not meant to have a happy ending. I just get confused when any movie suddenly wakes up and what you saw was just a dream.

Which led me to question:
A. If she did dream the ending and they were really being attacked by creatures, why dream that she left her friend Juno for the creepies to devour? I guess maybe she blamed her for them even being there in the first place...but still.
B. Were the creatures really there?
C. Did she really kill her friends and maybe go cuckoo? After all, wasn't she the one who first saw the creature? There was also a moment in the cabin that showed her taking some prescription meds and the camera seemed to hold for a moment on the bottle. In the end we hear the creatures..but do we? We also see her dead daughter..maybe it's all in her head.

I mean, she's having a hallucination when she wakes up that she's sitting with her daughter in front of a birthday cake blowing out the candles. Then the movie abruptly ends. That left me with way too many questions about everything I had just seen and what was really going on down there. Makes me want to watch it again. She was the only one who went rambo, putting her friend out of her misery, killing a mutant child and lingering in the moment..then later killing the mother.  I guess that would flip the sanity switch in anyone, but after dreaming she escapes why just wake up and sit there and succum to insanity? I'd still be trying to get the hel outta there

Well, the freaks come out at night

[BeyondTheGrave]

Susan ,I think the creatures where really there. Due to the fact that her friend was fighting the creatures and some of the other girls getting killed in the presence of the others besides the drugged up lady 

Besides why would her friend at the end team up with her to get out? She saw the monsters kill the other girls.

With the meds  I think it was to have the others doubt her at first when she started hearing noises in the cave and have some tension between the group.

Also BoyScoutKevin said theirs a different ending to the movie in the British version. It might make more sense. I didn't notice in the special features.

BoyScout, can you possibly post it if you have seen the British version ending?

[Susan]

Well what i mean is, what if she imagined the creatures were the murderers when it was the monster inside her? The rage of losing a daughter mixed with the claustrophibia of deep dark caves and being trapped with friends who...once again...are kinda responsible for ruining her life. Before they went into the cave the one friend was making a point to tell everyone what could happen in there from seeing things to having oral and visual hallucinations. She may have just gone completely insane.

Or again...what if she's in purgatory or hell? lol  THAT is why I hate dream sequences in movies, it leaves too many what if's

[BeyondTheGrave]

Well what i mean is, what if she imagined the creatures were the murderers when it was the monster inside her? The rage of losing a daughter mixed with the claustrophibia of deep dark caves and being trapped with friends who...once again...are kinda responsible for ruining her life. Before they went into the cave the one friend was making a point to tell everyone what could happen in there from seeing things to having oral and visual hallucinations. She may have just gone completely insane.

Or again...what if she's in purgatory or hell? lol  THAT is why I hate dream sequences in movies, it leaves too many what if's

I see now. Interesting take on it. Never really thought about it like that.  Now I feel like going back and listening to commentary track for clues.

[Scott]

Saw THE DECENT on the big screen a last summer. It was a good, but not great like some have mentioned. Perhaps the best of the year. Was surprised at who survived and everything.

(7 out of 10 Stars) Better than most.

[Dr. Whom]

Also BoyScoutKevin said theirs a different ending to the movie in the British version. It might make more sense. I didn't notice in the special features.

BoyScout, can you possibly post it if you have seen the British version ending?

SPOILERS!!!









In the version I saw (Belgium, so presumably UK), there is the 'escape' scene, with Sarah then suddenly hallucinating and then seeing her daughter with the birthday cake. Then we see her suddenly sitting still in the cave in the dark, in the hole she fell in, with no daylight whatsoever. Roll end credits.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Thanks AlexB. Its almost the same ending as our version ends with the daughter and birthday cake.

[Joe]

"Which led me to question:
A. If she did dream the ending and they were really being attacked by creatures, why dream that she left her friend Juno for the creepies to devour? I guess maybe she blamed her for them even being there in the first place...but still.
B. Were the creatures really there?
C. Did she really kill her friends and maybe go cuckoo? After all, wasn't she the one who first saw the creature? There was also a moment in the cabin that showed her taking some prescription meds and the camera seemed to hold for a moment on the bottle. In the end we hear the creatures..but do we? We also see her dead daughter..maybe it's all in her head."

the creatures were real and the fight with the creatures did happen. if you notice the necklace that she is holding with the pick-axe is the necklace that the girl who juno stabbed in throat gave to her which before that was around juno's neck and the girl ripped it off when she fell down. that necklace was given to juno by the other chicks husband cause they were having an affair, the chick stabs juno in the leg and leaves her for the creatures as a way of saying " you were screwing around wiht my husband and you lied to my face pretending to be my best friend so take this b***h" not to mention she wasnt in a very good mood(or state of mind for that matter) and mentally and physically tired and frustrated to put simply she was going mad so she did that in revenge. and also i guess to top it off was that she led them in there in the first place.

as she stabbed juno and ran away she fell down that hole ( where she grabbed on but slipped down) when she hit the floor she became unconcious though the camera doesnt show her get knocked out or let the viewer be aware that she is she gets up and makes it out then sees juno and then she wakes up from being unconcious and having that little dream and she is still at the bottom of the hole where she landed now realizing she didnt get out she realizes shell never get out and she goes completely mad and sort of idk "finds her happy place" (is that a good way to put it?) and sees her daughter who she loves and misses in her mind even though the camera shows they are both on the cave floor and doesnt really care about dying or the creatures or anything really except the memory of her little girl so she basically goes nuts and says f**k it.

[Torgo]

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

Ironically enough, the 2005 release of the god awful "The Cave" caused Lions Gate to delay the release of the Descent until 2006 in North America so that people wouldn't get confused.

[Torgo]

I liked The Descent a lot, but I still feel that the first two thirds of the movie was its strongest parts.

Once they introduced the creatures proper, it lost some of its punch that it had during the harrowing scenes in the beginning when the girls are simply traversing through the dangerous cave.   

[Deathfeast]

i am still mad at myself for buying the full screen dvd of this by accident.
i had been waiting so long to see it and i finally get it home and open it and its full screen!!!!
ok, anyway, i really liked this movie a lot and it was nice to see a new horror movie that had creatures in it instead of a pyscho killer.
i also liked what the creatures resembled and that they were not cgi.
i am sure it would have been a lot easier for me to watch though if i had bought the widescreen dvd!!!!

[Viktorcrayon]

I had only seen one review of it before watching it, wich didn't mention the creatures. It was just like "trust us... you have to see this". I thought it was about klaustrofobia, wich i thought was interesting enough as it was.

I was really shocked when the creatures started popping up. Haven't been that scared since the Ring (japanese).

[BoyScoutKevin]

I must say, that while I have not seen the British ending, but from reading about it, AlexB describes the British ending correctly.

[Amanda]

Hmmm....I must have blocked out the birthday cake....I saw this in theaters in Texas when it opened, and I could have sworn that it ended with her in the car, on the road.  I thought it ended with her seeing the dead, cheating friend in the seat beside her.  I don't remember the daughter and the birthday cake?

I didn't really like this movie.  I didn't hate it, and I liked the monsters, but it was entirely too gurl power for me.  Yep, I'm a traitor, but still.  I might end up giving it another shot on DVD though. 

[Torgo]

I must say, that while I have not seen the British ending, but from reading about it, AlexB describes the British ending correctly.

The British ending was the original scripted ending.

The way the American theatrical version just cut off the last 2 minutes was absurd.