After I saw the practically perfect The Descent, I started reading about the movie and found out there was a sequel: The Descent: Part 2. I watched it immediately after the first one, and the majority of the movie is not good. The editor of The Descent directed The Descent: Part 2, but it was like he and the writers enjoyed all the wrong things about the first movie then decided to emphasize them in this one. Most, if not all, of the new characters are not as interesting as the first group. They are perfectly designed to be cannon fodder. Instead of the multilayered threats of psychological tension, loss, nature as a threat and monsters, this movie can’t wait to get to the monsters so they can start killing people off. Josh Dallas, who plays Prince Charming on Once Upon A Time, plays one of the members of the rescue team, and he is not that great an actor so that will give you an idea of how the overall quality of this movie plummeted.
The entire premise of The Descent: Part 2 rests on the rescue team and sheriff using a survivor from the first movie soon after her rescue to guide them in the caves. The sheriff considers her a suspect, and she is suffering from trauma-induced amnesia, which is fine, but also screams soap opera. I’m fairly certain no doctor would permit the release of a patient to do something so rigorous and risky so the movie kind of lost me. I also don’t think that a woman would become a suspect so quickly regardless of the physical evidence. Even if she were a suspect, why would she help you? Aren’t you giving her an opportunity to escape again or hurt more people? It is fatally dumb.
The Descent: Part 2 seems more concerned with jump scares than matching the textured and layers of nuance storyline that appeared in the first film. It is mostly predictable and disappointing. The story never really works until a character rescues the sheriff, then for the most part, the sequel finally gets interesting. The only reason to watch this sequel is for everything that happens subsequently because we get some resolution to the first film though I think that it is a psychological punk out that undermines how unflinchingly badass and primal the first movie was. The first movie was credibly messy in its relationships, but this movie seemed more conventional in trying to strengthen collective bonds to result in a group effort to survive.
I actually didn’t mind The Descent: Part 2 turning into a collaborative, badass internship program with a particular focus on a certain type of recruit. I loved it and predicted it fairly early in the movie, but the end is puzzling. A tertiary character, fairly typical in horror movies, acts as a bookend to the movie. I was not exactly surprised because I thought this person knew more and was too swiftly dismissed, but the motives are unclear. As a symbol of hopelessness and systematic oppression that will never let certain segments of society survive the horrors lurking underneath polite society, it works, but it is also completely coming from left field and was not what the majority of either movie was about. It was mostly a character study about interpersonal dynamics with a particular focus on the effects of psychological trauma. It was never about oppression and rising above it. While I enjoyed the coming from left field, last minute scene that leaves us stunned, I don’t think that the writers considered the motivation other than it was a cool ending. What does this person get in exchange for doing this? This person doesn’t seem like a conservationist. There isn’t a symbiotic relationship. It just seems like a cool, unexpected gut punch, but why? I love bleak endings, but they need to make sense even if there was just an earlier scene in which this person was wearing a red hat. It is inconsistent with the way that the entire movie unfolds except as a way to prevent more collateral damage or sequels.
Found footage is one of my favorite genres so I liked those elements in The Descent: Part 2. It also doesn’t hurt that it gives viewers an excuse to spend quality time with a better cast from the first movie, which provides a little relief from the underwhelming new cast from the second. A Quiet Place probably paid homage to a scene in the denouement of this film. It is a powerful scene in both movies emotionally reminiscent, but distinct while serving the same functional purpose. It is nice to see that the Uruk-hai from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings are still working, but no lines.
The Descent: Part 2 is worth watching if you were a fan of the original, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor. If you decided to fast forward until the sheriff rescue scene then watched the rest of the film, it would probably be for the best. Unfortunately if you use that strategy to avoid all the worst elements of the sequel, you won’t be invested in the new character that matters and may end up hating the movie anyway. I’m a completist and am a sucker for women kicking butt so while I recognize that the movie was a shameless effort to exploit the success of the first, I’m also happy with some of the unrealistic twists and turns that permitted me to revisit my problematic fave from the original.