The Descent is a must see mashup of monsters and one of my favorite adventure genres when people go into the wild and things go horribly wrong. It also simultaneously works on several levels as an oneiric drama with an unreliable protagonist, a psychological thriller that takes suppressed issues that burgeon to the surface and a primal, devolutionary horror of survival of the fittest. It is about a bunch of adventure seekers who go on a caving expedition and get more than they expected.
The Descent also has an international, all woman cast with a brief exception at the beginning. I don’t mind when women are sexualized or sexy in movies, but these women are just normal with a twist. There is even a scene when one woman says, “I’m an English teacher, not fucking Tomb Raider,” i.e. Lara Croft. They are women who would rather engage in extreme outdoor recreational activities when they go on vacation, and they are all highly competent, strong and experienced. Their physical prowess is unquestionable so when the shit hits the fan, they are not helpless scream queens who must unexpectedly rise to the challenge or dumb chicks who will stumble and are easy fodder for the killer. As a viewer, when things begin to go wrong, and these ladies can’t handle it, shit just got real.
The Descent isn’t just a smart movie with a good story, but it is fun to watch. Even though we don’t learn a lot about the majority of the cast’s backstory, each person feels like an individual. As the challenges escalate, the way that each person individually contributes in the collective effort to overcome each challenge and level up is fascinating and substitutes for exposition. Their life is shown, not told. My favorite individual skill scene was when Becca made a way where there was no way. When things start to get bloody and people start to split up, I found myself rooting for some people more than I expected instead of cheering for their death.
The Descent’s emotional nuance illustrates the relationship issues by playing scenes on two different levels from the opening scene. Screaming can have multiple meanings—joyful excitement or terror. A joke is veiled hostility. Every gesture and interaction is so loaded with meaning that the movie deserves your complete attention—no multitasking!
Also the way that things go wrong is clever. The Descent sets it up that the viewer knows more than the characters on screen so people keep relying on individuals that can’t be trusted because of unexplored past trauma. Because two characters seem fine and are on vacation or have no obvious ties to a tragedy, no one has any idea how dumb it is to trust them. There is a stereotype that women are more in tune with their emotions and are more sensitive, but I loved how this movie shows that all people, including women, want to pretend as if everything is fine when it isn’t. No one trusts one character, but everyone lets her plan the trip and refuses to challenge her. Another woman is obviously freaking out, but they trust her with taking the lead and keeping the equipment. It isn’t stupid if those are the roles that they always played in their group, and only a crisis can lead to confronting reality. The crisis is pretty daunting even before the monsters arrive on the scene. I’m super proud of myself for considering one navigating option that is explored in the sequel and maybe viable—not bad for a city girl.
The Descent really earns the right to have monsters. They seem scientifically plausible and rooted in biological reality. Keen eyed viewers will spot them early in the movie, but when they begin to appear, they are a bonus because the movie is already riveting, and the stakes are already high. If I have one complaint, I wish that the denouement was based less on misunderstanding and incomplete information than it was. Misunderstandings make me feel uncomfortable and definitely enhanced the tension, but in this movie, it was so needlessly frustrating though realistic. Without the misunderstanding, we can still get the denouement. To be clear, I’m fine with what happens, but not with how it is used as justification to finally deal with real, underlying hostility although that is how life works.
I also appreciated that The Descent seemed to be made by filmmakers who are a fan of horror movies. There were visual references to Nosferatu, Carrie, Psycho, Final Destination, Alien, Deliverance and Jurassic Park. I’m really impressed that Neil Marshall, who directed Centurion and Doomsday, two movies that did not indicate how great he could be with the right script, could make an almost flawless masterpiece. He made Descent before those two movies so that isn’t a great indicator of future cinematic success, but he has worked on some great TV series such as Game of Thrones and Hannibal (and other critically acclaimed shows that I haven’t seen yet, but I plan to see such as Lost in Space and Westworld) so maybe he finally found a medium that matches his talents.
The ending of The Descent is somewhat ambiguous so if you’ve already seen the movie or don’t care about spoilers, keep reading the next paragraph.
Did it really happen or did Sarah never leave the hospital or did she leave the hospital, but never left the cave? Were there really monsters or was she suffering from the negative side effects of being in the cave for too long? I think that the filmmakers made it to be real. I think that most viewers could correctly assume that she never emerged from the cave.
What do I think? I think that she is still in a coma at the hospital because of one single scene. When the monsters emerge, she kills a child monster then must kill its mourning monster mommy. I think that she is using the monsters to exorcise her guilt over the accident in the opening and work through her loss and grief. She is also using them to finally get revenge against her friend’s betrayal, which she believes also led to the accident.
The real reason that I didn’t like the misunderstanding is because I was rooting for Juno. Ordinarily cheaters, disloyal and reckless friends are turnoffs, but because she never seemed to get joy from her mistakes and understood how wrong she was, I couldn’t hate her, and I just wanted Sarah to be more honest about why she wanted Juno dead. Also Beth, don’t go sneaking up on a woman swinging a pick. Tell the whole story. Pot stirrer! Why was Beth so invested in Sarah and Juno’s drama and didn’t seem to have a life of her own until it became literal!