The Descent
for strong violence/gore and language.
Reviewed by: Taran Gingery
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Extremely Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
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| Primary Audience: | Adults |
| Genre: | Thriller, Adventure, Horror |
| Length: | 1 hr. 39 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2006 |
| USA Release: |
August 4, 2006 (wide) |
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| Featuring | Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone, MyAnna Buring |
| Director | Neil Marshall (“Dog Soldiers”) |
| Producer | Keith Bell, Christian Colson, Ivana Mackinnon, Paul Ritchie, Paul Smith |
| Distributor |
 Lionsgate (Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.) |
“Scream your last breath”
“The Descent” begins with something that we are all very familiar with: friendship. Not only a strong friendship between the six leading ladies, but in particular a strong bond between main leads Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) and Beth (Alex Reid), who was Sarah’s greatest comfort during a time of tragedy. However, even the strongest friendships, when put under trial, can either become stronger or be broken, and this friendship is about to be put through its greatest test yet.
Sarah, having recently lost her husband and daughter in a terrible accident, is still suffering from nightmares a year later. In an effort to bring the group of friends together one last time before summer break ends, college resumes and other responsibilities make them too busy and also to give Sarah’s mind something else to dwell on for a while, these six friends decide to go spelunking (cave exploring). So, on one fine morning, this group consisting of Sarah, Beth, Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Holly (Nora-Jane Noone), Sam (MyAnna Buring), and Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), set off for a well-known cave in the Appalachian Mountains. Everything starts out well, and then things go terribly wrong.
The trouble first begins when a cave-in blocks the passage out of one cave and it is discovered that the map has been left in the car. Then it is revealed that they aren’t in the well-known cave after all, but an unknown group of caves—something Juno, who organized the expedition, knew full well, but she didn’t tell anyone. So, the explorers are left with only one choice—to find their own way out. Soon after, they find that they aren’t the first to be in the caves after all.
A hideous race of humanoid creatures has been dwelling deep in the bowels of the Earth for who knows how long. They have no human emotions, no feelings except a hunger for anything that walks on four or two feet, and they are hunting these six, interesting-looking victims. Now, what was only a race for survival has become a true fight for their lives as the group faces terrors and obstacles that will test their friendship and their will to go on.
Technically, “The Descent” is a marvel. The Appalachian location is perfect and at times, wondrous to behold. The caverns are extremely realistic and are both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Filmed entirely on sets using green screens, the results are astounding and not once could I tell that they weren’t real caves. All of the acting in the 6 leads is strong and special mention must go to whoever plays the creatures and whoever did the make-up on them, because they are disturbingly real.
Morally, however, the film is shakier. Partly this is because not all of the characters are developed enough and some only seem to be around to be killed by the creatures. Those that are developed end up changing in drastic ways, making you think differently of them. Sarah, the most developed character of them all, is the easiest to sympathize with because she has recently experience a tragedy, and yet through it all she is sustained by the memory of her lost child which seems to give her a will and strength to survive. True, it is not God who is her strength, but someone seems to give her these memories at the right times. However, her actions in the final moments of the film suggest that a lot of that strength also comes from a desire for revenge and she is shown as ruthlessly unforgiving, both of which are morally unacceptable for a Christian audience.
Juno, the second most developed character, is the hardest to sympathize with. Her actions at the beginning of the film show an almost prideful ambition that the rest of the party doesn’t seem to share, as she purposefully leads them into the wrong cave so that they can be the first to explore it. When she realizes that the entire thing may have been a mistake, she becomes dangerously aggressive towards the creatures, to the point that she seems to take a strange delight in killing them instead of merely defending herself and loses all control of what she is doing in a bloodlust, with gruesome results.
All of the girls, however underdeveloped some of them may be, display a strong sense of courage and loyalty in the hardest circumstances and all of them at some point in the movie do all that they can in order to save each other, even when there isn’t any hope. But many of the girls are eventually killed off, with the most unsympathetic ones alive in the final half, leaving the audience either rooting for them or wishing that they would come to their senses and do something to make us like them more.
From a parental perspective, there is plenty here to make “The Descent” not for kids and only for adults or older teenagers with strong stomachs. Five minutes into the film, we see Sarah’s husband bloodily impaled in a car accident, but that’s only the beginning. On the trail to the cave, the girls pass a rotting deer corpse crawling with maggots. One girl falls and breaks her leg, resulting in a compound fracture and a bloody, agonizing treatment. During various fights, several of the monsters are stabbed, bashed in the head, jabbed in the eyes, etc, and all with very bloody results. One girl has a chunk bitten out of her neck, another’s throat is cut, and still another is stabbed in the neck with a pick-axe. Two girls have their guts literally torn out by ravenous creatures.
On top of all this, the language is pretty appalling, too. Do the girls seriously have to use the ‘F’ word whenever something bad happens? Some smoking and reckless drinking is also present near the beginning.
Many of these graphic and blood-drenched scenes had the audience turning away in disgust. Interestingly enough, when the girls had to watch their friends being killed in such a horrible fashion, they closed their eyes to it, yet the camera lingered. I think having the camera also turn away after making its point would’ve been more effective towards making a fairly decent and well-made horror flick without drowning it in gore. Also, in order for a horror film to be strong, we need characters that we can root for, and if the filmmakers had written these 6 women as morally strong to the very end, the film would have been all the more powerful.
Thus, in conclusion, it’s not worth our time and money to wade through rivers of blood and filthy language to take this “Decent” into Hell, although it could’ve been a decent scary thriller if the moviemakers had made some wiser decisions.
Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Minor
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
Yes, the idea I have no doubt, was to gross people out quite a bit of the time. And they do. This is a movie in which audience members dare themselves to make it through without looking away. So, yes, there is a lot of violence and gore. The cursing, however, in my opinion, was bout par for the course, particularly given the situation. I think the point is that when you’re running for your life from freaky, weirdly evolved cave monsters, you become less concerned with your usage of profanity. Christian or non-Christian, I don’t think there’s much difference.
But even though the violence was extremely intense and gruesome for much of the movie, it actually wasn’t very gratuitous. I know, that sounds like the statement of a madman; hear me out. First of all, with the exception of the movie’s opening violence, which is very brief, the film makes us wait about 35-40 minutes for anymore. The creatures aren’t even in the picture yet, and that forces the filmmakers to establish suspense WITHOUT violence, and the movie does that very well, particularly in a scene in which the girls must cross a large expanse. We watch, frightened that they will fall. Not an ounce of blood is used. As well, this time is used to set up the characters, yes, but also the mood; the setting; the atmosphere of this cave. It is a very scary place, creatures or no creatures.
The movie is called “The Descent”, and of course, it refers to the descent into the cave. But the movie IS also about the effect this cave and these creatures, and this situation has on these women, particularly on Sarah and Juno. These two women “descend” (you know it’s important because it’s in “quotation marks”) into utter madness. Sarah especially. Once she learns a little more about her past, she becomes another person entirely. In this way, the movie takes on a nice thematic quality about our gut impulses. Sarah has not really reacted to the death of her family, but when she finally does, it is under the worst of all possible situations. That, I say, is dramatically interesting.
And aside from that, the movie stages its action sequences very well. The creatures are frightening and scary, but in a fascinating, utterly watchable way. The violence is often exactly as it would be: it is confusing and frantic and fast, and shadowed. And the scene in which Sarah is chased by one of the creatures (of which there are hundreds!) into a pool of blood, only to emerge totally covered in it was truly horrifying (again, consider the thematic implications here). “The Descent” is not a brilliant picture, but it is a top notch horror movie. And these days, that IS saying something.
Offensive / 4
Average / 5
Offensive / 4
Average / 5
Very Offensive / 5
Very Offensive / 5
Before I saw, I read about what the director wanted to do with it. He wanted it to be claustrophobic and wanted to do something similar that the first “Alien” movie did. And, let me tell you, he succeeded. It is very claustrophobic and quite similar to the movie “Alien.” “The Descent” focuses on character development for a long time, then, once the six women enter the cave, it focuses on the real life struggles of being in a cave. Only when it can’t seem to get any worse (cave-in, injury, original way out is blocked, no one coming because they didn’t tell anyone where they were) the creatures come, and… that’s bad because they eat people.
I really liked this movie, because I enjoy good horror. I don’t like torture or bodily mutilation, but for some reason I’m okay with creatures or monsters trying to eat or kill people, and vice versa. And that’s what happens. Right away, the women fight back, and, although some of them get eaten and die, the few that are left have a stand off and it’s, I gotta say, awesome. The main thing I liked about this movie was it wasn’t the stupid horror movies we’re used to, where people get naked and have sex for no reason, where people are stupid and make stupid decisions and get dead because of it. Yes, the main characters are women, but there is nothing sexual or sensual in this movie, unless women covered in blood, killing flesh-eating monsters is a turn on for you.
There isn’t anything in this movie that is spiritual or religious, but there is a sense of morality, but not the good kind. I’ll explain. To me, and I think the writer did this on purpose, the title has a double meaning. Not only are these six women descending into the actual Earth, going into the caves, one of the characters (I won’t tell ya who!) descends deep into a place where morality has no barring just as the creatures seem to have done. (A short scene has the women talking about the possibility that the creatures are descendents from cave men, but have evolved and adapted to the caves). This movie was good, although very violent. Almost no sexuality (I can’t remember any nudity or anything else and I’m very sensitive to that), and I’m sure some swear words and the Lord’s name taken in vain, but I don’t remember where or how much.
Very Offensive / 4
From a Christian view, while the movie does have loads of violence and cursing, it doesn’t stoop to the level of many recent films on either level. The film presents 6 women fighting for there lives against psychotic enemies, so the violence is almost nessessary. Again, there is a lot of cursing, but not to the point of being over the top. There is NO sex and NO nudity and NO sexual conversations which is another plus for anyone sensitive to those situations. I think overall that “The Descent” was a great horror movie that was really overlooked at theater and that anyone mature enough to watch an R-rated movie and who likes horror films would LOVE it!
Offensive / 5
Offensive / 4½
“The Descent” goes too low. If you can tolerate lots of offensive words, lots of dark scenes, and illogic, see this movie. Ugh.
Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
I recognized, perhaps as a tribute or “theft,” the famous shot from “Apocalypse Now” in which Willard’s head rises slowly from the mud. Although in this film the liquid is blood, it is perhaps a more explicit visual depiction of Joseph Conrad’s journey into the black heart of humanity—its Heart of Darkness, as it were—finding only evil. Other allusions, both in craft and content, occur to me, but part of the fun is finding them on one’s own.
Though it may be the product of a bleak, almost nihilistic world-view, this film is not without its value. Aside from the sheer horror it communicates, (And quite well, I might add: I was in such a rush to get into the sunlight after it ended that I left my hat on the seat next to me.) it’s an interesting study of the depravity that passes for “survival.” That is, the lengths to which a person may go to survive are not always to be commended or even condoned, although it is easy to understand them. Separate from the science-fiction aspect of the story, I, for one, can’t imagine what I would do if I were trapped so far underground. Perhaps I would do the same as one who is trapped by such fear.
This film doesn’t strike me as being very Biblically offensive. To paraphrase a professor I once had, 'The movie doesn’t say that what the characters said was right; it just says that they said it.' I would, however, caution adults against letting anyone under, say, 15 or 16 see it; some of the violence is quite strong.
My Ratings: Average / 4