Watching 'The Descent' was quiet a chance occurence. I got out of class feeling restless as I had just had coffee and didn't immediately have anything to occupy myself with. While I was wandering aimlessly (although in the general direction of Gerstein), I bumped into a friend who was in a similar dilemma. We decided to catch a movie at Carlton. The Descent was the only one we hadn't missed a significant portion of. Upon enetring a hall meant for about 200 people we discovered that we were alone except for a single male presence at the very back of the theatre: a quiet, bespectacled man who could've been anything from an axe-murderer to a movie critic. The atmosphere was perfect. Knowing my fear of horror movies in general, the coffee rush I was on and the given ominous setting I'm not sure what kept me in my seat but i'm glad I stayed.
The blueprint for the adventure-gone-wrong genre is pretty standard; the characters are introduced in an innocuous setting about to embark upon an adventure of a lifetime. Meanwhile, everyone watching has already started guessing which ones are going to die (and in which order). However the characters in this movie are hardly stereotypical. An all female cast allows the movie to do away with gender stereotpypes of any sort. 6 friends from the other side of the atlantic come to north carolina looking for adventure and perhaps some bonding (there was a falling out of sorts, we are only given a few tanatlizing morsels and left to work out the rest). Under the leadership of Juno, a goddess in every right, given her namesake, the group begins to explore an underground cave. One of the girls, Sarah, seems to be psychologically sensitive and gets 'stuck' in very narrow passageway. While one of her friends turns back to help her, they realise midsentence that the passagway has started to collapse and they just manage to scramble out. Their way out is blocked...let the horror begin. I don't want to give too much away but what follows is nerve-racking, tragic, and exhilirating all at the same time. By and far its intelligent, not especially in its logic, but in its interpersonal dynamics (once again I am thankful for the lack of stereotypical characters). In the end its hard to identifty a hero, as is possible on so many other movies of this genre and that makes this movie much more interesting than your average monster flick.
Rating : Very Good
You will enjoy this movie if you liked: The Alien series, Predator, Jaws
5 comments:
I'm totally claustrophobic, so the idea of entering a cave is anathema to me.
A movie about people who go cave-diving and then get picked off one by one? i wouldn't be able to sleep for ages.
*shudder*
haha Sharon. It was awesome though. Especially the display of crazed girl power killer+survival instinct.
The claustrophobia WAS the scariest part though.
I'm looking forward to watching this with my roommate. We actually downloaded it a week ago or so. Claustrophobia for the win! :P
Watched it. I didn't much like the ending. But I found the concept of human evolution to be intriguing.
yeah I didn't like the ending either. But atleast it left me thinking whether sarah's actions were atleast justified. Usually when a movie leaves me thinking I consider that a good sign.
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