As they descended so did my opinion... (The Descent (Special Edition, 2 DVDs))

Member Name: anya_lahiri

Product:	The Descent (Special Edition, 2 DVDs)
Date:	28/02/06 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low Budget, Non - Celebrity Cast, Untypical Ending

Disadvantages: Not scary enough, Repetitive, Did not hold viewer's attention

*** This is not a DVD review but a FILM review, hence why it s written under the film category and not the DVD one***

I am someone who loves films, but not only that, I love films that contain gore and horror. ‘The Descent’ had been one that I wanted to watch for a while but hadn’t got round too. After reading Jeremy Clarkson’s page in my Saturday Newspaper (this Saturday) he had ranked ‘The Descent’ as his THIRD favourite film of ALL time, beating ‘The Long Good Friday’ to the post, but below ‘Local Hero’ and ‘Butch Cassidy.’ After reading this and realising that the Saturday TV was rubbish I decided to rent out ‘The Descent.’

~~~~Basic Plot~~~~
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After a tragic freak accident where Sarah’s daughter had been accidentally killed by a rod spearing through her head (there was a car crash and the opposite car had rods on top which smashed through the windscreen- I must add I feel this is the most gory and disturbing image of the film. Sarah’ is admitted into hospital where she tries to overcome the tragic death of her daughter. It is for a year that she leaves her friendship group where they do exciting things such as kayaking and pot-holing.

One year on from the tragic death of her daughter a group of 6 friends decide to go pot-holing. Sarah has returned to the group of Beth, Juno and her (Sarah) where they are joined by Rebecca, Sam and Holly. Holly being the least experienced of the bunch. They all think that they are going pot-holing in cave already discovered BUT Juno has tricked them all in to going into an undiscovered cave which she wants them to claim and name!

It is when they enter the dark, murky depths of the cave where problems occur. Sarah believes that she spots a figure staring at them, but Juno dismisses this as one of her hallucinations that she has regularly had since the death of her daughter Jessie.

Do the others believe her? Is she hallucinating? Are there really creatures in the cave? And why has the cave remained undiscovered and unnamed for so long?

The figure that Sarah sees is in fact real, it looks rather much like a teeth-barring Gollum/Smeagol from Lord of the Rings. These creatures walk on all fours, are blind and use their sense of smell to hunt. Surfacing to hunt but returning to the cave to eat.

The 6 women get split up and try to hunt these creatures as they approach them BUT is there a traitor amongst their camp? Is it just these creatures to fear?

~~~Genre and suitable for who?~~~~
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This film was certified as an ‘18’ and so is not suitable for viewing by those under this age it has also been classified as a horror moving displaying lots of blood, gore, flesh and displaying the squalid features of the cave.

~~~My opinion of the film~~~
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I must admit I felt a bit let down and cheated by this film especially having read such brilliant reviews of it on here and the personal recommendation from Jeremy Clarkson. Bu was this because I had set my hopes for the film too high? It wasn’t a poor film but it wasn’t brilliant neither.

I found the cave scenes quite repetitive and the creatures were not particularly scary. It did not hold me in suspense and there was no particular bonding with the characters of the film, I found. I was expecting a bit more ‘blood and guts’ then there was, and I would not describe it as a horror. It reminded me of the Blair Witch Project to some extent, which I similarly did not like. So I guess if you got scared at the Blair Witch Project then I guess this would scare the be-jeepers out of you!

The fantastic points of this film were that it was produced by a British director and was relatively low budget to make. Baring in mind how much the film cost to make, I would say that the film is respectable and achieves a lot more then films with a similar budget.

Similarly, the ending was also fantastic but I cannot say why as I will be giving the film away!

I also like the fact that no ‘recognised’ actors or actresses were used which gave the film a sense of realism and I feel managed to make the film seem slightly more real then others such as ‘I know what you did last summer’ where a whole cast of well known celebrities was used.

I would say that this film is worth a watch if you have nothing better to do. However, it is not memorable and I do not rate it as highly as others do. It is not a poor film but it didn’t achieve its desired effect of being scary and it was repetitive in parts. I give it two stars which are achieved for the remarkable success of the project with the budget that was used, fro using a non-celebrity filled cast and because it has a non standard ending. I feel that the film could have been improved by less repetition of certain scenes in places also by being slightly scarier.

Do watch it for yourself and judge how you find it!

Many Thanks for the read!

Lisa

Summary: Unfamous Cast, Predictable, Similar to Blair With Project, British Director, Low cost budget