Neil Marshall is one of the most talented and exciting filmmakers to emerge from the UK directors pool over the last decade. Not only did he write and direct a classic in Dog Soldiers with his first full time movie, but he even managed to trump it in 2005 with the sublime horror film The Descent. Mixing the atmosphere of Alien, with the psychological horror of The Shining with the adventure holiday gone amok scenario from Deliverance, The Descent follows a group of female friends (six chicks with picks) as the embark on a caving expedition in the American Appalachian mountains.
There are several elements that combine to make this a near perfect slice of horror cinema. First off is a superb script which ramps up the tension immediately after introducing us to the lovable girlies and their commitment to extreme sports. It perfectly balances the psychological descent of protagonist Sarah with that of her 'friend', antagonist Juno, who is the root of all Sarah's problems. It's a testament to how great the story, characters and direction is that white knuckle tension is generated to extreme levels in the films first half...even without any classic horror elements being introduced. Of course, once the carnivorous Crawlers enter the scene it's a no holds barred exercise in frenzied, bloody violence and terror.
Easily one of the best horror films of the last decade...if not of all time. A word to the wise however...for the story to truly make sense and for the full impact of the psychological horror to take effect, one must seek out the international cut of the film rather than the neutered US edition with the ending removed. Sorry Yanks, but your love of happy endings does you an incredible disservice in this case.
1 comment:
Totally agree. Though Dog Soldiers remains my fave Neil Marshall film cuz its werewolves and always makes me smile, I fully acknowledge that The Descent is actually the superior film. I still think it is the best out and out horror film of recent years. It has great characters, subtext, looks amazing and is just plain bloody scary. A modern classic. And, yeah, avoid the lame American version with the happy ending and thus the sequel too even though it is competently made.
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