A few years ago,
a low-budget action/horror movie called Dog Soldiers made respectable
profit at the UK box-office and gathered cult status amongst worldwide
horror aficionados.
Writer-director Neil Marshall's pulpy "soldiers vs. werewolves" opus may have
been flawed and scrappy, but it remained refreshingly different from the
usual British output.
Marshall returns with a bigger budget, but keeps the same guerilla-style,
with The Descent. It's another gleefully old-fashioned horror
adventure with a simple premise: a team of women extreme-sporters descend
into an uncharted cave, only to face natural disasters and awaken some
unnatural predators…
The Descent undoubtedly takes it cues from movies like Alien, building
suspense to breaking point with carefully constructed set-pieces and in
fleshing out the characters beforehand. There's nothing particularly
different or original once the monsters are revealed, although the caving
premise is actually quite fresh (although the similarly themed The Cave
was released soon after…) But no matter, because with half the budget of
The Cave, Marshall shows the Yanks how to crank up the tension with some
genuine scares and well-placed chills.
From the same mould of Dog Soldiers (single-sex team confront supernatural
predators in a natural territory), this is another mix of engaging characters
and superbly realized make-up effects. While Dog Soldiers' budget meant the
werewolves resembled men with giant Alsatian heads, the "Crawlers" in The
Descent are thankfully of a more human design (half-Gollum, half-caveman) --
a great addition to the pantheon of movie monsters.
What makes the movie so effective is the time it takes to ensure you invest
in the characters. In fact, for almost half its run-time, the tension,
suspense and moments of horror are all character and situation based. There's
a superb moment that replicated the feeling of claustrophobia inside a cave
that is just perfection, and a queasy broken leg scene that's certainly not
for the squeamish. In fact, so good is the first half of The Descent, that
you'll be forgiven for thinking the appearance of monsters is actually
disappointing after the initial shock value.
This is blood-soaked fun as the intrepid women cavers make the titular
descent into madness as their perilous situation becomes increasingly
frightening and seemingly insurmountable. Kudos must go to all the actors
involved -- particularly those actresses who ensure their death scenes
actually carry some resonance and leave you numb. The actors playing the
slimy Crawlers also use their body languages very effectively (almost miming
their nastiness), while the production design and special-effects are
fantastic.
The film is not reliant on CGI and it old-fashioned in-camera effects give
everything that raw, gritty reality computers can't replicate.
But there is a negative; the ending is too drawn out and clever-clever for
its own good. A stronger and more definitive finale would have been
preferable to the moody scene we get, which could also leave many people
scratching their heads in confusion. But, beyond that, The Descent is a
great exercise in terror that does exactly what it says on the tin.
Neil Marshall may be the shining light of horror Britain needs right now,
and on the evidence of this far more accomplished sophomore effort, I'm
really looking forward to his future projects.
The Descent is a very dark film and the purity of the blackness isn't always
100% in the cave sequences, with some grain and noise visible. However, none
of this is very distracting and the transfer copes well considering. The
daylight scenes are all heavily contrasted, giving the film a bleached
effect similar to Saving Private Ryan. Overall, the picture isn't perfect,
but it does a commendable job under such difficult conditions.
No problems with sound, as the DTS and DD5.1 soundtracks are fantastic
experiences full of echoing and a continuous feeling of dread. The Crawlers
themselves are effective primarily through clever use of surround sound
effects, with them scuttling about your speakers. The cave location is just
a great place for a filmmaker to have some fun with surround sound, so
falling rocks have plenty of bass and the rear speakers whistle with wind
and drips of rainwater. The musical score is also well mixed with the dialogue.
The extras are as follows:
Commentary Tracks:
The first is with director Marshall and five of the cast, the other with the
director and some crew. Both are generally quite rambling and uninteresting,
with just a few anecdotes to keep your interest.
Making Of Documentary:
This is quite a good little documentary that does an effective job of
showing the filming of the movie. A few on-set interviews are sprinkled
throughout, together with some insight into the training undertaken by the
female cast and creature designs.
Extended Scenes:
Non-anamorphic widescreen footage of certain scenes, correctly excised for
pacing reasons.
Bloopers:
Mildly diverting outtakes from filming.
Still Galleries:
For obsessive fans only!
Storyboard Comparisons:
Moderately interesting.
Trailers:
Not a bad selection of teaser and theatrical trailers, but all quite similar.
Well, this is another so-called Special Edition that is nothing of the sort.
The Descent SE is a good video transfer with a superb audio mix, capped off
with a nice selection of extra features that provide just the right level of
insider scoop, although fans would have preferred more in-depth material.
A decent DVD release with some worthwhile additions, recommended to all
horror fans.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
