The Descent

I can only start by saying that horror movies usually don't scare me. They have made me jump, they have made me squirm, but I had never, never truly screamed during a horror movie...until I watched The Descent.

Written and directed by Neil Marshall, The Descent is a movie about death, friendship, and the will to survive. After the death of the main character, Sarah's, husband and daughter, five of her friends decide to take her on an adventure. The girls decide to go cave-diving. They plan on going to a tourist attraction like cave, but because of the adventurous spirit of one of the women, Juno, they end up going to a completely uncharted cave system. Down in the caves the girls experience pure terror. Creepy creature called Crawlers stalk the girls through the cave system forcing the them to push themselves to do things that they would not normally do.

My favorite thing about this movie had to be the building up of suspense. It starts slow, but it is truly worth the wait. The first forty minutes of the movie are all just a build up to the last half of the movie. That's not to say, however, that they weren't frightening. While there wasn't any in-your-face gore and terror, their is a suspense created that will cause viewers to be very nervous. I must admit, I am somewhat claustrophobic and seeing this group of women crawling through the tight cave systems terrified me. My palms got sweaty and my heart was racing and yet I was still waiting for the movie to get to the downright horror part. And then, without any warning, it happened. The suspense turned into complete chaos. And at that moment, I screamed. I have never reacted like that to any horror movie I've ever seen, but something about the white, corpse-like face of the Crawler looming over the woman's shoulder completely horrified me. And after that moment the movie became absolutely terrifying. Crawlers jumped around the screen, women were screaming, the camera was moving and it was just the most disturbing scene I have ever seen.

However, the disturbing images, blood, and gore are not the only things that made the movie outstanding. The underlying themes of overcoming death and heartache, of trusting friends and the bonds of friendship being destroyed, and of doing whatever you can to survive cause the film to have a much deeper meaning than most horror films of this time period.

If I had to rate this movie out of ten, I believe I would give it a 9. The Descent is one of the most incredible horror films I have ever seen. It is truly terrifying and after seeing this film you can count on one thing: you will never, ever want to go cave-diving.

-H