January 2007
The Descent
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The Descent Scream your last breath 4 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson |
“The Descent” is in a word…decent -- an out-of-the ordinary claustrophobic thriller with moments that will snap your head back in disbelief and set your heart racing.
The plot revolves around six women exploring a cave in the Appalachian Mountains. Although they come from varied backgrounds, all six borderline macho spelunkers share the love of a challenge, and the more exhilarating the better. The main character, Sarah (sinewy Sissy Spacek look alike Shauna MacDonald), agreed to go on the trip in the hope it would ease the horrific loss of her husband and daughter. When their brash leader, Juno, (a hot-headed Natalie Mendoza) purposely leaves behind the map identifying the exits to the cavern, the six friends soon discover they are not only lost, but they are being hunted. Juno may be spirited and gung ho, (her excuse for leaving the map behind is she wanted the women to claim the cave for themselves), but her spiky-haired friend, Holly, (wiseacre Nora-Jane Noone), is the epitome of impulsive behavior and bad judgment. Antsy, swearing like a Tourette’s sufferer, and sure she’s found the way out, Holly charges blindly down a narrow path, only to fall into a deep crevasse and break her leg. Wandering through the dark cavern on her own (but with much more caution than Holly), Sarah spies someone. The thin, translucent figure hears her, disappearing into the darkness faster than Carl Lewis with a hotfoot. Convinced the fragile-minded Sarah has gone balmy, the others quickly dismiss her claim. After setting Holly’s leg with the skill of the skill of the Marquis De Sade and hoist her out, the group is viciously set upon by the creature Sarah had seen moments before – and the creature has brought along his equally ravenous friends. Before Holly can say swear with flair, everybody is Kung Fu fighting. Holly is eviscerated (believe me, it’s okay to clap for her loss), while Juno, in full bore kick-ass mode, accidentally stabs Sarah’s best friend Beth (the caring Alex Reid) in the throat. Ah, but as Beth slumps to the cavern floor, she pulls Juno’s necklace off, foreshadowing a showdown between Juno, and Sarah. Juno is harboring a guilty secret involving Sarah’s late husband, and Sarah who knows damn well what that secret is and already harbors a grudge against Juno.
The pale creatures, referred to as “crawlers” for their gravity-defying ability to scale walls on all fours at supersonic speed, are blind, but have a heightened sense of hearing and smell. A cross between Lord of the Rings’ Golem, Nosferatu, and a malnourished Tom Petty, the crawlers are silent, relentless, murderously territorial, and perpetually hungry. Despite having filled caverns with the cleaved bones of mastodons and miners, they’ve never encountered foes as resourceful as these desperate women. When the crawlers slink into action, the already tense plot proceeds at a whirlwind pace, shifting from the conventional story of a group of lost explorers to the unconventional struggle of a small army fighting for their survival.
Is there a bit of the old classic “Ten Little Indians” formula at work here? Yes. You’ll figure out pretty quickly which characters will wind up being dinner for the voracious crawlers, but you might be surprised to see which characters survive their underground nightmare. Sarah’s transformation from skitterish widow to a gore covered heroine is not entirely convincing, but its fun to watch. And Sarah settles her score with Juno in a manner that shows her one time friend and competitor that she knows the truth about her relationship with her husband as well as what really happened to Beth.
As the film launches into the showdown between the crawlers and the explorers, director/writer Neil Marshall turns the visceral dial almost past the point of endurance, but wisely shifts the action from one character to another with a dizzying effect. The creatures themselves are at first seen in glimpses and in quick edits, which makes them appear much more malevolent than they actually look. (Think how frightened you were of the shark in “Jaws” until you saw his rubber mandible gumming Robert Shaw to death.)
Marshall’s quick camera cuts serve him best in the early part of the film. You may see it coming, but you’ll be caught off guard by the unsettling finality of the accident that tears Sarah’s family apart. When you know something’s about to happen and you’re still left gasping in disbelief, that’s a good scene, and “The Descent” has plenty of them. Darkness plays a major role in establishing the cramped conditions the women face and underscoring that they, and not the crawlers, are the ones who are blind. The cave itself is another character, promising danger at every turn, offering hope for escape then slashing it away with razor sharp teeth.
Extras
The extras include an enlightening segment showing how the arduous hours of make up the actors playing the creatures had to endure; how the surprisingly small set was utilized, cannibalized, and filmed at various angles to give the impression of a labyrinth; and intersperses the features with on-set interviews with the cast and crew. Craig Conway, who plays “Scar,” the main crawler, shows he’s not only a trooper, but equally effective in the role whether he’s wearing full make up or not. Actress My Anna Buring (who plays the role of neophyte cave explorer Samantha) and her on-screen big sister Sakia Mulder (the protective Rebecca) get more screen time here, and its nice to see that good-natured Nora Jane-Noone is nothing like her reckless character.
“The Decent” is a first-rate thriller, manna from heaven (or the caverns of hell) that horror fans can cherish through umpteen viewings. You might catch yourself looking in the corners of your room at shadows you thought were there but really aren’t. And you’ll probably go out and buy a GPS navigation system.
Posted January 17, 2007 Permalink
