The Descent

[Belushi]

It was a pretty enjoyable movie, though I enjoyed the first half more before those goblin people appear.

 

[Idris2002]

Last time I was in Belfast, I met the friend I saw this with (I think her current boyfriend resented my being there, but I've known her a lot longer than he has).

She told me she had nightmares after seeing this movie. . .

 

[Hiker Hauk]

I've watched it but don't remember much. Why they start to kill each other in the end (which I don't like)?

 

[dylanredefined]

Cos one had shagged the others boyfriend .So wounding her and leaving her to the mutants seems justified .Liked the film ice axes the new samurai sword
discuss

 

[Diamond]

I thought it was just as shown on the screen...

*LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS*

















There are quite a few clues to suggest that she might be dreaming/hallucinating.

Just prior to waking up from the crash she is dreaming of her young daughter blowing out the candles on a cake. She then 'wakes' to find herself in a strange hospital environment lit by an eerie green glow.

After running through darkened corridors getting more and more hysterical (with the green light following her, leaving voids of darkness behind and ahead of her [and if I remember rightly with the vague sound of a child's laughter in the background]) she comes to in a crowded corridor collapsing in the arms of a friend.

Visually the suggestion of tunnels, claustrophobia and madness is established, and associated together, very early on.

Those motifs of the dream with the birthday cake and the vague sound of a child's laughter are repeated throughout the film and are generally associated with the horror soon to arrive.

From that you could argue that she never woke up from the crash and is in a coma/dead and experiencing an imagined reality. You might even go as far as to say that the laughter is that of her daughter (possibly alive) by her bedside, hence its unreal nature.

Such a possibility would be pretty terrifying. You go through a traumatic car crash, lapse into a coma and spend the rest of your days living out the insanity that you have descended into and created for yourself, out of the emotional pattern of jealousy, betrayal and anger that characterised your last 'waking' experience (the argument with the husband in the car).

But beyond that there are suggestions that even in a scenario in which she had actually woken up, she might descend into a hallucinatory madness within the caves and kill her friends out of paranoid self-delusion. For starters she experiences a number of hallucinations throughout the film, she is clearly on some kind of medication which she is shown to leave behind before she sets off for the cave, she is the first to spot the creatures and their existence is established mainly through her 'unreliable' witness (e.g. camcorder); and throughout the film much is made of the possibility of hallucinating in the pitch black of a cave.

As you can see, I quite like it and thought it had quite a bit of depth to it. Did anyone else notice the visual echoes and nods to other films throughout? Carrie was probably the most obvious one, but I also saw elements of Ringu when they first descended (the entrance resembling the well), Dracula, the evil dead etc....

p.s. just remembered the Blair Witch Project reference too, maybe we could try and list them all, there are supposed to be a ton of them.

 

[Flashman]

Cos one had shagged the others boyfriend .So wounding her and leaving her to the mutants seems justified .Liked the film ice axes the new samurai sword
discuss

Eh? I thought she wounded her because she found that clue which told her that wounded girl killed her lesbian lover girl? Sorry if that sounds confusing.

Do we need to put "spoiler" anymore? Been out fucking yonks now.

Anyway I really liked the film.

Fwiw from what I made out the getaway scene was just "mad dreaming" too.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

crap predicatabvle pap with an oh so obvious ending... ffs ...

couldn't feel ro identify with any of the charachters utter shite...

 

[bellator]

Enjoyed this movie, also loved Wolf Creek.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

p.s. just remembered the Blair Witch Project reference too, maybe we could try and list them all, there are supposed to be a ton of them.

Jesus I really wasn't giving it that level of attention when I watched!

 

[Neva]

It was alright. Natalie Mendoza is hot as hell.

 

[The Groke]

crap predicatabvle pap with an oh so obvious ending... ffs ...

Really?


honestly?

I can completely understand not liking it, or thinking it was shit/drivative/whatever (despite the fact that I do indeed like the film ) but did you honestly feel (given the films peers, especially in the American horror genre) that the ending was "Obvious"?

More so than, say, any other ending to a movie?



Just seems a really strange thing to say, given that the ending was in no way "happy", or Holywood or resolved anything to the usual level of movie satisfaction.

couldn't feel ro identify with any of the charachters utter shite...

Well me neither, but I am not a woman in my late twenties and I have never been spelunking, so I am not particularly suprised....




The only reason I am quite so surprised is that by pure coincidence I have just finished watching the movie on DVD and have come on here and found this thread....

My second opinion was just as favourable as the first.

Yes, the film throws it's hand a little when the monsters are really revealed and I still believe the film could have worked better without them in some ways - the horror and claustrophobia of the early scenes could have been elaborated on and carried the whole film - especially if they had still included the inter-group frictions and carried them to an equivalently bloody conclusion......

Anyways, it is a "disposable" horror film and stands up proud in its genre still, and I rate it.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Really?


honestly?

I can completely understand not liking it, or thinking it was shit/drivative/whatever (despite the fact that I do indeed like the film ) but did you honestly feel (given the films peers, especially in the American horror genre) that the ending was "Obvious"?

More so than, say, any other ending to a movie?



Just seems a really strange thing to say, given that the ending was in no way "happy", or Holywood or resolved anything to the usual level of movie satisfaction.

oh it was all a dream... dullarsed ill concived poorly thought out and so fucking obvious...

Well me neither, but I am not a woman in my late twenties and I have never been spelunking, so I am not particularly suprised....




The only reason I am quite so surprised is that by pure coincidence I have just finished watching the movie on DVD and have come on here and found this thread....

My second opinion was just as favourable as the first.

Yes, the film throws it's hand a little when the monsters are really revealed and I still believe the film could have worked better without them in some ways - the horror and claustrophobia of the early scenes could have been elaborated on and carried the whole film - especially if they had still included the inter-group frictions and carried them to an equivalently bloody conclusion......

Anyways, it is a "disposable" horror film and stands up proud in its genre still, and I rate it.

I meant i couldn't give a fuck when any of the charcters were twatted didn't think ypu that was just or nope that was unjust or have any connection i totally couldn't have given any less of a shit if i had been dosed up on ket and beaten savagley about the head...

there was no yes you deserved that it was more oh the twatty suposed sterotypical out there one does summit daft in the exact sterotype of their charachter, they then split into the partisan groups, they have a tiedious moral dilema no one gives a fuck about, they begin to loose trust in each other they are picked off one by one except one fothem doesn't actually die and will be resurected just before th end for the heroic you go on with out me/sacrific scene it was all a dream oh fuck evil things end... totally by the numbers dullfest no twists no turns no plot nothing intresting zip... yawn...

 

[miss minnie]

but it wasn't all just a dream.

yes, there was a dream moment before it was yanked back to *reality*, she regained consciousness. the shock was the bluntness of the ending. one just forced to stop, no way forward, no way back, just sat there awaiting death.

there were some really lame moments. blind creatures that can't sense sound or smell so they walk straight past a decent meal? wtf.

do agree about the stereotyped characters. the feisty irish girl, the competitive asian, the prim english etc..

was still a good scary yarn imo. not terribly sophisticated. leave your rational self in the cloakroom and enjoy.

 

[jasoon]

Another homage, as pointed out in the commentary, was to that of The Shining-at the beginning, when they drive to the cliff, and the camera pans over the vehicle with the background scenery

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

but it wasn't all just a dream.

the oh i have escaped bit where she thinks she got out...

regardless the characters were to flat for my liking hence my in difference to whether they lived or died... unlike hostel where i felt for the japanese girl who jumped in front of the train you can empathise with that... by comparision for predictable scary type movies which actually entertain...

 

[The Groke]

the oh i have escaped bit where she thinks she got out...

.

Which is what I enjoyed and thought it was particularly non-obvious.

It was a complete reversal of the usual "it was all a dream/hallucination" sequences found in certain hollywood horror/thriller movies; usually the main character forsees the worst happening, or the "bad ending" before it is revealed that it is yes, "just a dream" or a freakout.

In this one (do I really need to add ****SPOILER**** at this point now?) The surviving character was given a glimpse of freedom and the "good-ending" before having it cruelly ripped away when it was revealed to the viewer that she was in fact hallucinating, and was still stuck in the cave.

Doomed!


Anyways, all opinion innit - If you don't like it, fair enough and I shall not be rude enought to dismiss your view as "wrong" or to spend too much time trying to persuade you otherwise!

Like minnie said - it is was it is and should be enjoyed as such rather than analysed too much!





(P.S - If we are mentioning homages to other movies, what about the bit where she emerges from the bloody water with the torch lighting: reminded me of Apocalypse now.)

 

[Grandma Death]

Started off well. But got just plain silly towards the end-but then again this is a common thing for horror flicks.

 

[Reno]

I love horror films, but thought this was poorly directed, not scary at all and unimaginatively cobbled together from many better films (the main character is a carbon copy of Nicole Kidman's bereaved mother in the superior Dead Calm).

I'm not a stickler for realism, but I quickly get bored when horror films resort to endless false jump scares, especially when we are talking about caves, an intensely quiet environment where it certainly would be audible (with an echo !) when one of your mates creeps up behind you, a trick endlessly repeated here. Instead of exploiting it's quiet claustrophobic setting and creating tension and an atmosphere of dread, the film quickly becomes tiresome with a barrage of hectic editing and loud noise as it goes on. Once the monsters show up not even the jittery cinematography can distract from the fact that they look like rejects from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

[oddworld]

I thought this film was really really bad.

 

[sorearm]

^^^ wot oddworld sed!

saw this many moons ago, the gf was jumping a bit - I was laughing at really innappropriate moments, cos it was derivative, cliched and the (admittedly intersting ending) ending didn't save it. dull, ininspiring, hilariously funny in parts .... 2/10 and that's being generous!!!

 

[Moggy]

Some very different opinions in general compared to when it was released

I really liked it, then again put any british horror film in front of me and i'm usually quite pleased to watch it, even if it's a bit naff.

Glad to see a bit of a 'uk horror revival' going on the last few years.

 

[T & P]

Thought it was bollocks. Not really awful to be fair but not very good either. I had certainly expected a lot more after hearing positive reviews.

 

[electrogirl]

Did anyone just watch this? What a pile of titwank.

 

[N_igma]

Would it not be safer just making a new thread, this one is over three years old.

I actually thought it was a great film and can't wait until the sequel. What did you find so bad about it?

 

[free spirit]

yep, just watched it again... not quite as scary as I remember it, but then I think I was on a sunday night post party weekend come down last time I watched it. Think it's a pretty decent film tbh, but then I'm a sucker for the well fit girls doing mad climbing moves part of it, so could be biased

 

[electrogirl]

Would it not be safer just making a new thread, this one is over three years old.

I actually thought it was a great film and can't wait until the sequel. What did you find so bad about it?

Is there a sequel?

I thought the characters were absolute cack, the whole 'car crash pole through the eye' thing at the beginning seemed superfluous, was she meant to be in a dream or something? Why did they need that storyline?

The caving bit where they got stuck was the most scary for me, as soon as those monsters arrived I lost interest.

And it was so full of Hollywood cliches.

And I couldn't tell who was who or what was going on for most of th 2nd part.

Ending was okay though.

 

[N_igma]

Is there a sequel?

Yep. Think it's either being released or is being filmed this year.

Why did they need that storyline?

To show that she was mentally unstable, there were also subtle hints that Asian girl was having an affair with her husband, thus justifying her actions towards at the end of the film. It also heightens our sympathy and feeling of despair towards the main character.

And it was so full of Hollywood cliches.

It's actually an English film.

Yes there are lots of cliches but you're supposed to suspend your disbelief when watching horror films.

 

[free spirit]

dammit, seems from this thread that I really needed to have watched the start of the film to make proper sense of it rather than taking it at face value... hmm, now I'm a bit >>>

 

[electrogirl]

Yep. Think it's either being released or is being filmed this year.

oh no.

To show that she was mentally unstable, there were also subtle hints that Asian girl was having an affair with her husband, thus justifying her actions towards at the end of the film. It also heightens our sympathy and feeling of despair towards the main character.

Was it meant to justify the actions? I was meant to think it was okay to stab her friend up? Well I didn't. I just thought it was all unnecessary, or rather it didn't work.

It's actually an English film.

Yes there are lots of cliches but you're supposed to suspend your disbelief when watching horror films.

Yeah I realise it was an English filmt hanks, but Hollywood cliches are Hollywood cliches and it was full of them. Normally I don't mind tbh, I just found it scarier when they were scared of not getting out etc. than silly gollum monsters leaping around. And I dodn't think I should have to suspend my belief! They should do it for me.

 

[N_igma]

Well I didn't. I just thought it was all unnecessary, or rather it didn't work..

Lets put it in context:

Asian girl drags them all into unknown cave
Kills her mate
All of her other friends are dead
Possible affair with her now dead husband

I'd be pretty pissed off would you not?