31 Days of Horror: The Descent

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 2, 2008

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The Descent (2005)

Synopsis: Six women descend into an Appalachian cave in search of adventure, but instead find cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers. (But these inbred creatures are too scary for a silly acronym.) The friends find their will to live tested as they face the brutality of the creatures as well as a brutal truth behind two of their friendships.

Killer Scene: Trapped in complete darkness, the women resort to using the night vision feature on their video camera. We see what they see as the camera pans back and forth between them until finally an unexpected visitor appears on screen. You know it’s coming but you’ll still shitstain your couch.

KILLSHEET

Violence: Bloody car crash early on includes a head (or two) impaled with a steel rod. A fall ends with a bone-popping, skin-piercing fracture. Multiple scenes of stabbings, slashings, bloody geysers, and flesh eating.

Sex: The cast is almost entirely female, and there’s no lesbian shower scene? No nekkid frolicking in an underground spring? I know, seems like a waste, but the terror and suspense don’t leave much room for waxing erotic anyway.

Scares: The movie is loaded with jump scares like the one in the Killer Scene above, but it also maintains a pretty decent stretch of dread and suspense. Definitely one to watch with the lights out.

Final Word: Terrifying and relentless with a whopper of an original ending (the one with the birthday cake, not the truck.) Easily the 2nd scariest British film ever after Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (the scene where that Pied Piper-like dude pops his head in the window and steals Dick Van Dyke’s kids still haunts my dreams.)

Which ending do you prefer… the hardcore original in the cave, or the pussified US version in the truck?


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  • Chris
    Gimmie the hardcore original ending any day of the week. It's tragic, it's beautiful, and it sets the tone more for the film than Juno popping out at the end of the film in the truck, which is just lame in the context of cutting out the final scene.

    It is a great movie though (plus it has uber hottie Alex Reid from the Jack Shoulder film "Arachnid" in it). There aren't many films I have to shut off, catch my breath, then go back to after a quick smoke outside. Saw 2's needlepit scene did that to me, and The Decent's claustrophobic scene where the main girl gets stuck in the tunnel, and then it starts to collapse. I nearly lost my shit right there.
  • I'll take the original ending anyday. The film was great, and I have to agree with Chris, this film got under my skin a lot and like him I needed a smoke break after the tunnel collapse scene.

    Definitly one of my favorite horror films. I hear they're making a sequel, wonder if it will be as good as the first.
  • Damonstration
    Original ending of course. Unfortunately the sequel is based after the pussified ending.

    The memory of seeing this in theaters still makes my heart beat faster. I don't think I've ever been more stressed during a movie.
  • I saw this at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 7 and screamed like a girl during that scene with the night vision. Yes, BNAT audience, that was me.

    This movie is an awesome example of turning a tense thriller into a creature-feature midstream. Not sure most films could achieve a shift like that, but it works really well here. And yeah, the original ending definitely.
  • Yeah, I described the film like "The first half is the best movie about caves and their dangers ever and the last half is a pretty awesome monster fest in a cave."
  • Smurf
    I of course liked the hardcore original ending more, but the American ending wasn't so bad that it ruined the movie. It was just the standard horror movie ending ( Final Girl survives, is haunted by experiences). The rest of the movie was more than good enough to make up for it.
  • bill brasky
    I loved this movie, is the alternate ending on the regular DVD?

    top 5 horror
  • For once I actually like the edited ending better. It is far more open ended, leaving it up to the viewer to decide what particular fate befell the lead. The British ending just serves it up on a platter, no mess, no fuss, no challenging the viewer. Boo.
  • Hardcore ending. One of the best horror films of the last decade. Every movie these days is "the best blankety blank since (insert classic)" but this really IS the best atmospheric horror film since Alien. I'd recommend you check out this and some other films this Halloween for some good scares:
    http://www.zoom-in.com/blog/2007/10/halloween_h...
  • Ed Melloy
    And, where does one go to see the alternate ending?
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