Go. See. The Descent.
Be forewarned that this movie is probably at its most effective if you go into it knowing as little as possible but for those of you who don’t mind having the experience ruined by hype and expectations, then read on.
The Descent is quite possibly the scariest and bloodiest movie i’ve seen this year. Six times. I jumped six times while watching this flick. Which has never happened before with any other so called horror flicks. And i am not one to be easily scared.
I was actually a little reluctant in getting the DVD because i’d heard that it’s practically the same movie The Cave was (and that movie, i heard, is complete shit). I mean, i knew it was from the guy who made Dog Soldiers (which was a brilliant little horror flick – the Matrix joke made me laugh) but wasn’t too convinced that it’d be anything special. But oh how wrong i was. The Descent is freakin’ amazing for what it is. It was the 5 star rating from Empire magazine that did me in. If Empire says it’s good, then it must be. And it is.
I’m not too sure if the DVD is out in the US but if you can track it down, get it. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome. Otherwise, there’s always bittorrent.
It’s funny because while i was watching this flick, i was thinking, “now THIS is the movie that Creep should’ve been” and then reading the exact same thing being said in a review afterwards. Creep was super disappointing. I was expecting so much better from a movie that had Franka Potente in it.
But anyway, The Descent. Better than Creep. Better than Saw II. Better than High Tension.
Some choice quotes from other people who have seen it:
Marshall goes all-out to disturb, upset and downright terrify his audience for a relentless 100-odd minutes
The less you know, the more you’ll enjoy. If, of course, being scared shitless is what you consider enjoyable.
Brutal, bloody, terrifying, astonishing… And so tense it’ll leave you aching. The most significant Brit chiller since 28 Days Later.
Marshall makes superb use of the claustrophic settings and the darkness to crank up the tension to the absolute maximum, making it almost unbearable to watch at times.
This movie made me jump at least three times! Original, shocking, bloody & tense. This is what a true horror movie is & I think Marshall deserves a big round of applause for achieving it….
I missed this on it’s original release and saw it was the Wednesday Special Screening on Wednesday at my local cinema. Went along, boy I thought my heart was going to jump out of my mouth at times and I’m not an easily scared person.
Never has a film lived up to the hype like this one. Branded “one of the scariest films of all time” I went to see this film believing it cant be that scary. Wrong! I watched this on my own, which I recommend, and I absolutely wet my pants, I think I even lost a stone in sweat.
How often is a horror film one of the best pictures of the year? how often do horror films actually scare the sh-t out of you? how often do horror films grip you in total suspense? how often do horror films have great acting? how often are horror films well made? how often are horror films somehow realistic? HOW OFTEN ARE HORROR FILMS ACTUALLY HORRIFYING? well in modern times… the answer to all of those questions is “very rarely” but The Descent does all of those and more. Somehow, it even horrified critics (in a good way).
The only thing that will ruin this movie for you is word of mouth, which ironically is exactly what this film will need to become commercially viable. But the less you know, the more you will enjoy it.
The Descent will rank as one of the most unashamedly terrifying British films ever made.
I didn’t expect anything from this film before I walked into the theatre it, yet it is the greatest horror I have ever seen, and am likely to for a very long time.