The Descent (2005)
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 170
Fresh: 144 | Rotten: 26
Deft direction and strong performances from its all-female cast guide The Descent, a riveting, claustrophobic horror film. In this low-budget import from Scotland, director Neil Marshall has masterfully created a spelunking nightmare, which doubles as a compelling meditation on morality, vengeance, and the depths to which we might go for survival.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 9
Deft direction and strong performances from its all-female cast guide The Descent, a riveting, claustrophobic horror film. In this low-budget import from Scotland, director Neil Marshall has masterfully created a spelunking nightmare, which doubles as a compelling meditation on morality, vengeance, and the depths to which we might go for survival.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 204,303
Movie Info
A group of close female friends on a yearly adventure vacation find themselves trapped and hunted in a series of caves by an unknown force that lurks in the shadows in The Descent, the second horror feature from Dog Soldiers writer/director Neil Marshall. After suffering a devastating car crash one year before, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) is lured to the States with her friend Beth (Alex Reid) to a special spelunking trip by the fearless Juno (Natalie Mendoza), who abruptly fled from the U.K. after
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Shauna MacDonald
Sarah -
-
Alex Reid
Beth -
Saskia Mulder
Rebecca -
Nora-Jane Noone
Holly -
MyAnna Buring
Sam -
Oliver Milburn
Paul -
Molly Kayll
Jessica -
Leslie Simpson
Crawler -
Justin Hackney
Crawler -
Craig Conway
Scar -
Steve Lamb
Crawler -
Sophie Trott
Crawler -
Catherine Dyson
Crawler -
Tristan Matthiae
Crawler -
Mark Cronfield
Crawler -
Julie Ellis
Crawler -
Stuart Luis
Crawler
ADVERTISEMENT
Friend Ratings
No Friends? Inconceivable! Log in to see what your friends have to say.
All Critics (170) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (144) | Rotten (26) | DVD (21)
Marshall could very well be the Caravaggio of the B-movie.
Top CriticThis intermittently effective UK horror thriller carefully establishes the psychological relationships among the women, then squanders this calibrated and generally plausible setup with a series of crude, implausible, and scattershot horror effects.
For my money, [the] first 20 or so minutes are the best in the film. Once the real adventure gets underway in the cave, things get less interesting.
While the movie has wonderful moments of unmotivated tension that make sure we're quite ill at ease from the beginning, it's also got a few too many of the kind of cheap boo-scares that indicate a director not fully trusting his grip on you.
Tight shots of women desperately wriggling through worm holes or teetering on a ledge overlooking an abyss create a claustrophobic effect, one that leaves the characters gasping for air and the audience breathing shallower.
Do we even need men in horror films any more? They're bound to do something stupid, they almost always get killed in the end and don't look as good covered in sweat and blood.
Super-scary and vicious, both psychologically and physically, this cleverly produced chill-ride is edgy British horror at its very best.
Tense, gory and masterfully malevolent.
Although Neil Marshall's attempt to justify the U.S. ending is admirable, the original ending is the only way out - providing a chilling bookend to a motif and suggesting what seems like cerulean-tinged peace is actually the solitary solace of madness.
Director Marshall has obviously kept his DVD player spinning for days studying all of the classics and simply taking everything he needed like a Vanilla Ice "Under Pressure"
Blank screamers, fastidiously amplified "boos," and the most confused intimations of lesbianism since High Tension
The ensuing carnage is ample but not gratuitous; every arterial spray and bone crack makes a point.
It's nasty, unpleasant and sadistic but brutally efficient and undeniably effective.
[Writer-director Neil] Marshall makes real movies, not just schlockfests designed to sate the lusts of gore-lovers (although there is plenty of gore, too).
Where the film exceeds 'Dog Soldiers' is toward the end, as Sarah comes to grips with what it will take to survive her ordeal and gets in touch with her feral side.
Six sexy spelunkers in an underground fright fest make for keen and claustrophobic cinema.
There are inconsistencies and frustrating ambiguities, but this is another reliable, vigorous horror experience for genre fans.
The Cave done right.
Once it gets going, it shakes you and keeps shaking you.
The Descent may not be a classic, but it's likely to remain with you for a while.
It is to the film-maker's credit that these scenes are filled with real tension and edge-of-your-seat moments.
I would recommend seeing The Descent in the daytime, because the feeling of the sun on your flesh as you walk out of the theater will cheer you up in ways that you had heretofore never imagined. Seriously.
Offered powerful enough performances to keep me engaged throughout.
With beautiful direction, a plausible plot, effective but downplayed creature effects, and top notch acting, The Descent takes a tired concept and actually adds a sense of distinction.
Audience Reviews for The Descent
Super Reviewer
I think that Neil Marshall is one of the greatest horror directors working in the business today. I clearly remember when I first saw his debut feature Dog Soldiers a few years ago that I was left feeling terrified, but also laughing in my seat at it's hilarious black humour. His second feature, The Descent, is one of the most serious movies I've seen in a while, and that's saying something when you consider how horror movies have become a lot funnier than scarier in recent years. Having said that this is an absolutely brilliant film. The Descent started by petrifying me, giving of a wince inducing sense of claustrophobia and total isolation. But as it progresssed so skillfully treading into more disturbing and darker territory I was feeling more and more horrified. I love horror, it's undoubtedly one of my favourite film genres, but i've toughened up on them over a long period of time and not scared easily. However I was literally shaking after seeing this. It's also got everything a horror fan could possibly wish for. Director Neil Marshall clearly loves horror as much as we do, he brings together all elements of the genre, psychology, gore, monsters, kills, murkiness, and of course the "last girl." He offers countless bloodbaths throughout the flick and each scene is shot by Marshall carefully, with a beautiful visual style. Due to the compressed environment in which the plot is set, the film also uses it's imagination to bring on the scares rather than ending up becoming cheesy, then succumbing to the usual means of deaths in horror films. His script features incredibly realistic dialogue that truly aids you in investing your sympathies to the characters. In addition I found the cinematography eye popping and downright stunning, the acting compelling, and the crawlers in the caves constantly scary and creepily animated. To put it simply, The Descent get's weirder, bloodier and nastier after every twist and turn, leaving you right at the edge of your seat. Before unbeknownst to us throwing it's audience back into them again in complete fear. I just couldn't ask anything more from a horror film. It's outright demonic with just a slight pinch of feminism from it's all female cast, and quite easily the perfect fright flick for Halloween. Without contest it's one of my favourite horror films of all time, and eventually it will become a timeless British horror classic.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Movies Like The Descent
-
- Juno: Sam, stop poking it with a fucking stick.
-
- Holly: The queen is dead. Long live...the fucking queen!
-
- Sarah: What about you Holly, got a man?
- Holly: Oh, I'm a sports fuck like Juno.
-
- Beth: You put in a flight-plan, right? If we don't report in they'll come looking for us.
- Rebecca: That's how it's supposed to work, except I put in a flight-plan for Boreham Caverns and this isn't Boreham Caverns, is it Juno?
- Beth: We're in the wrong fucking cave!
- Juno: Holly was right! Boreham Caverns was a tourist trap!
- Holly: Don't try and pin this fucking shit on me!
- Rebecca: This is not caving, this is an ego-trip.
-
- Juno: What happened to you?
-
- Juno: Sam's gonna be Doctor Van Ney in like a year's time.
- Beth: Please tell me it's longer than that.
Discussion Forum
Discuss The Descent on our Movie forum!
What's Hot On RT
Transcendence is a Sci-Fi Snooze
Johnny Depp's Best Movies
Picture gallery of movie bears
50 movie posters gallery
10 most anticipated blockbusters
Latest News on The Descent
June 12, 2009:
Neil Marshall in Talks for New Predator?According to Bloody Disgusting, you'll never guess who's in talks to direct the new "Predator"...
August 22, 2008:
Further Reading: Hammer Horror's MySpace Revival StumblesDoes a new collection of webisodes hosted on MySpace and featuring tabloid teen favourites Jamie...
May 6, 2008:
Neil Marshall's 10 Post-Apocalyptic PicksThe Doomsday director runs RT through the movies that inspired his cyber-punk vision of a dodgy...
Fresh Links
Featured
25 Best Superhero Movies
HitFix counts down the greatest hero flicks of all time.
100 Best Animated Movies
From anime to Disney, TimeOut NY breaks it all down.
Models Turned Actresses
BuzzSugar lists a number of models who left the runway for the big screen.
16 Shocking TV Moments
RollingStone recounts some of the most famous heart-stopping scenes.
Jai Courtney Talks Terminator Genesis
The Divergent stars drops some fresh details.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Mrs. Doubtfire Sequel in the Works 15
- Parental Guidance: Bears, Transcendence, Plus The Nut Job and more 0
- Five Favorite Films with John Turturro 22
- RT Podcast: Ep. 3 - Christopher Meloni, Joel Surnow, & John Turturro 0
- Critics Consensus: Transcendence is a Sci-Fi Snooze 49
- Weekly Binge: The Returned 3
- Johnny Depp's Best Movies 151
Top Headlines
-
Survivor Wins Wednesday Ratings Race
0
-
Zack Snyder Talks Man of Steel Sequel
0
-
Jerry Bruckheimer Talks Priates 5 and Beverly Hills Cop 4
0
-
Robin Williams Attached for Mrs. Doubtfire Sequel
0
-
A Brief History of the Art-Horror Film
0
-
Tron 3 Is Still in Development
1
-
Cannes 2014 Competition Titles Announced
1
