Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here with a film I saw at last year's Butt-Numb-a-Thon, but never actually reviewed because I wanted to see it again when I wasn't dizzy from exhaustion and fear. At last year’s BNAT, this one kind of stole the show away from such higher-profile films on the bill like King Kong and V for Vendetta. And the reason it did so is because, well, it was the scariest and most entertaining fright flick I’ve seen in years. I spent many months trying to get people to seek out British writer-director Neil Marshall’s previous film, Dog Soldiers, which was a tough job since it never actually came out in U.S. theatres. And the thought on everybody’s mind at BNAT was, “When does The Descent come out in this country?” There just didn’t seem to be any doubt that it would because it’s so much better than any American horror film in a very long time. Oh, and for those of you who have seen UK version of The Descent, the rumors are true; the version being released in the U.S. has a different ending. More on that in a minute.

The film opens at the end of what appears to be a wild nature adventure that a group of women friends are taking. We see some of the women at the tail end of what looks like a treacherous white water rafting ride, with the husband and child of one of the women waiting on the shore, looking a bit nervous. This family suffers a terrible, violent tragedy on the drive home, one that leaves the woman emotionally traumatized. One year later, the women (mostly British) are gathering again, this time in a remote mountain area of the Appalachians for a little cave exploring. The film takes its time getting us into the caves, and that’s okay. We get to know a little about these women, most of whom are played by actors unfamiliar to American audiences (the only one I recognized was Nora-Jane Noone, whom I liked a great deal in The Magdalene Sisters). We subtly discover where the hidden rivalries lie in the group, who the more irresponsible ones are, and which of the women were more or less supportive of the woman in the accident. These things don’t seem all that important at first, but they come into play later.

The trip into the cave seems to be going along nicely enough, and The Descent might have worked as simply as a tale of claustrophobia and seeing things in the shadows of this dark, unexplored world. A small cave-in sets into motion a series of events that, alone, would have made a hell of a movie. The way the women came into the cave is blocked, and it turns out the one who brought them to this particular place lied about the tunnels being well-mapped. It turns out this is an unexplored cave, with no route out, and so they must find another way. With food and batteries running low, time is critical. Then the women start to hear these slithery clicking sounds…they see movement out the corners of their eyes…then the attacks start.

One of the more unfortunate things about The Descent’s U.S. release is that Lionsgate has given away too much in the trailer. When we saw this film in December, we had no idea that monsters were a part of this equation, and once that knowledge becomes part of the equation, the full-on mindfucking begins. Marshall doesn’t waste our time explaining where these creatures came from (they look somewhat human, but it’s clear that they rarely see the light of day, operating by sense of sound). Even knowing about the monsters doesn’t quite prepare you for how scary they and this movie are. Ever fear you’ve ever had about what lurks in the dark, in the absolute pitch black corners of this world, are turned into reality with this movie. And one by one, the women are simply picked off or attacked as their search for an escape seems more and more fruitless.

The thing that intrigued me the most about The Descent is that it actually might be a bloody, violent horror film that women might actually turn out for. The actresses in the film are certainly attractive, but this isn’t a collection of models or MTV reality stars collected simply to be picked off by some slasher after a tasty shower scene. The Descent takes its scares seriously, and it never forgets that some of these women have issues with each other that come into play when fighting for their lives. Oh, and about that ending, let’s just say that there was a “dream-like” aspect to the original version that is missing from this one. And while this alternate ending hardly qualifies as “happy,” it certainly more hopeful than the one we saw at BNAT. I doubt you’ll encounter a more skillfully made horror film this year, at least not one released by a major distributor. The Descent is a soul-shaking good time, and, after seeing it, you’ll probably never want to be in a dark tunnel again for a very long time.

Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com