Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned..... (The Descent (Special Edition, 2 DVDs))

Member Name: david_1967

Product:	The Descent (Special Edition, 2 DVDs)
Date:	03/04/08 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great 5.1 soundtrack. Tense atmosphere. Clever menu system.

Disadvantages: Slow burner which eventually catches light - maybe a bit visceral for some

Many moons ago I was in the scouts - a wonderful organisation that introduced me to girls, drinking and the joys(?) of caveing. Oh, and scouting but this was just a minor distraction. Anyway, one summer we all went into this cave in the Lake District and I have never been so scared in my life as the time when I thought I was never going to get out of that damn hole in the ground. So it was with some trepidation that I sat and watched the 2-disc DVD of this British horror film. Set in a cave for Gods sake!

'The Descent' tells the story of six women and their 'adrenalin junkie' lifestyle as they embark on an expedition into the (almost) total darkness of an undiscovered cave deep in the Appalachian Mountains. What begins as a joyful trip to escape the horrors that traumatised one member of the party the previous year soon descends(sic) into chaos when they become trapped deep in the cave and come to realise they are not the only ones down there. What follows is a cat and mouse nightmare as they struggle to find a way out from their living hell.

The movie is billed as 'the most significant Brit chiller since 28 Days Later' - the kind of diatribe that usually gives a film the kiss of death - but I have to admit that at times I did find myself jumping. Although I have to admit that, thanks to my traumatic caveing trip of my youth, I did find the scene where one girl feels trapped in a tight crawl-space rather horrifying and the scariest point of the whole thing.

Not to say there are not plenty of moments when this film delivers its shocks. When I first saw this film on TV, although I did find it tense and creepy, the real impact definately falls short, as in most horror films, when the audio is not relayed in a 5.1 soundscape. With those 6 speakers throwing sounds of panic and distress around your head you cannot fail to become even further immersed in the girls struggle and even further shocked when the sounds of terror hit you from unsuspecting angles when you least expect them. A lot of the film has no musical soundtrack which only adds to the loneliness the cavers find themselves in. Even the echoes, as the girls talk to each other, reverb around you as the audio track gives a really good impression of actual cave acoustics.

The film does take a while before it really kicks in but this can be fairly typical of horror movies as they show the light before the darkness.

The two-disc special edition DVD comes with a fairly comprehensive list of extras -

Disc One comes with the film and commentaries by both the cast and the crew and has a rather quirky menu system having the options on a cave wall and the selection process being a torch beam. It is a bit slow but it is small touches like this that show a bit of thought has gone into it. Unlike some DVD releases.

Disc Two also provides another impressive menu featur this time in the guise of the viewfinder through a digital video camera set in infra-red mode. The reason for this is apparent after you have seen the main film. The disc features a whole host of goodies. There is a 'Making Of' featurette, extended and deleted scenes, outtakes (which more often than not are more funny for the cast/crew than the public watching them), scene and storyboard comparisons, cast biographies, numerous still galleries and various trailers.

This is indeed a classy British horror film (far scarier than 28 Days Later) and very reminiscent of 'Creep' which also had a storyline along the same lines as this. It was written and directed by Neil Marshall who also gave us 'Dog Soldiers' and has a cast list of home-grown talent who have starred in such British classics as 'Doctor Who', 'The Bill', 'Holby City' and 'Coronation Street'. They give a good performance as the trapped cavers except in one scene one of the girls says 'route' to rhyme with 'out'. I assume this was for the American audience.

All in all a very competent movie with enough scares to have the missus demanding the bedroom light remain on overnight and that she can go to sleep before you do and at the great price I paid of £2 there can be no higher praise indeed.

Also posted on Ciao.

Summary: Scary British shocker with good use of light