The Descent

Six friends make their way from Scotland to the Sates to do some spelunking. We get some scenes of the friends chatting and drinking, exactly the same stuff I do with my friends. One of the women, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), is still not coping well with the death of her husband and young daughter a year earlier. She is having nightmares and such. Anyway, Juno (Natalie Mendoza) has planned the entire trip and leads the other five women to a giant hole in the ground.

Everything is going fine until there is a tight passage to crawl through and Sarah gets stuck. Her best friend Beth (Alex Reid) goes back for her and both of them almost get stuck in a cave in.  Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) tells them not to panic because there are other exits out of the cave, all they have to do is follow the map in the book. The only problem is that Juno didn't bring the book, because she didn't bring them to the system she said she was going to. This is one nobody has ever been in before, she wanted them to discover it and name it together.  Oops.

So now, with their exit blocked they must continue deeper into the cave hoping there is a way out on the other side. As they make their way, it becomes obvious that they weren't the first ones down there. They find mining equipment that is at least a hundred years old.  They also discover they aren't alone. It appears that this cave is the habitat for a bunch of subterranean humans that have evolved to live underground. Sarah is the first one to see them, but the others don't believe her because the darkness and stress can lead to hallucinations.

Then Holly (Nora-Jane Noone) falls and breaks her leg, badly.  As they are carrying her they stumble across a cavern filled with bones. And Crawlers. Holly is killed and the others scatter, but Juno fights and kills one of them.  Rebecca and Sam, (MyAnna Buring) run and try to make it out while Sarah falls down into a pit, filled with more bones. She is forced to watch as they eat Holly (very icky I might add), and finds Beth, dying. Beth warns her not to trust Juno and gives her Juno's necklace that had Sarah's husband's saying on the back. It turn out that Juno was sleeping with Sarah's husband. Nice.

Anyway Juno finds arrows and assumes that they belong to the minors that were first down here, marking the way out. She meets up with Rebecca and Sam, but won't leave without Sarah. Sarah, on the other hand, has become filled with rage and takes it out on the Crawlers. I was certain she was going to rip Juno's head right off when they met up again, but she doesn't. Instead she waits for awhile before stabbing her in the leg, before running for the exit. I personally would have waited until I actually saw the exit before exacting my revenge... but that's just me.

I liked this movie. It wasn't edge of your seat terror, but the feeling of claustrophobia and with creatures popping up gave me chills. The acting was amazing and the characters were all very realistic.  Well, I'm a bit skeptical in Sarah's transformation, she went from crying in a corner to Ellen Ripley in like thirty seconds, but hey, it made for a good movie.

The one thing I don't buy is that fact that no one has been in this cave before. If no one knew it existed then how did Juno find it? 

Ignoring that, and the 'it was just a dream' sequence near the end, it was a good movie. However I would have liked to know more about the Crawlers. Who were they? How did they get down there? Why couldn't they find the exit? Or did they choose to live down there? How long have they been down there for? But, on the other hand, it's good there's no clear cut answers. It leaves room for debate. And a sequel. Movies always seem to leave an opening for a sequel.

Grade: 7/10