Ever want to scare the pants off of somebody but do not know what horror film will do it ideal? When it comes to horror, lots of diverse elements of the genre can generate each worry and tension for a viewer. Sometimes it is paranormal, from time to time it is cheesy slasher films, or perhaps it is inexpensive jump-scares. These are generally a attempted and accurate staple. But when it comes to truly scaring an audience, truly receiving below their skin, there’s one particular film that does it ideal: The Descent.

Released in 2005, The Descent follows a group of close friends on a spelunking trip, a year just after tragedy strikes one particular of them. What they obtain inside is much more than just mesmerizing cave systems even though, and they quickly obtain themselves in a fight for their lives against the cave’s monstrous dwellers. The film acts as a slow burn for the initially hour or so into its run, truly constructing up the suspense till the initially crawler (as the monsters have been deemed) shows up. The crawlers are downright nasty, pale, and vampiric in look, with human-like figures but inhuman tendencies. They have a taste for blood and flesh and hunt down each and every of the ladies one particular by one particular, lingering in the shadows prepared to pounce at any moment. But it is not just the crawlers that make The Descent such a fantastic horror film, in reality, it may perhaps not even be the major explanation. What tends to make The Descent so helpful is how it taps into pretty true and frequent fears, and creates a deeply individual film that is bound to make audiences squirm.

The Descent

A caving expedition goes horribly incorrect, as the explorers develop into trapped and eventually pursued by a strange breed of predators. 

Release Date

August 4, 2006

Director

Neil Marshall

Cast

Shauna Macdonald , Natalie Jackson Mendoza , Alex Reid , Saskia Mulder , MyAnna Buring , Nora-Jane Noone

Runtime

99 minutes

Writers

Neil Marshall

Studio

Lionsgate

Tagline

Face Your Deepest Fear

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What Is ‘The Descent’ About?

The film starts by introducing us to a couple of of the characters we’ll be following all through the film. There’s Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), Juno (Natalie Mendoza), and Beth (Alex Reid). The close friends are thrill seekers and are just coming to shore from whitewater rafting. They’re greeted by Sarah’s husband Paul (Oliver Milburn) and their daughter Jessica (Molly Kayll). On the way residence, Sarah notes Paul’s quietness and asks him what’s incorrect. He tells her it is practically nothing, which we (and Sarah) can inform is a lie, but just before she can press on their vehicle is abruptly hit by one more car. The accident claims the lives of each Paul and Jessica, leaving Sarah the only survivor with an unimaginable quantity of discomfort and guilt more than the losses.

Though it is inevitable, the worry of losing somebody you really like is a pretty true and pretty daunting believed. The Descent took that worry and had it kick off the film, setting a dreary and depressing tone that would only worsen as the film went on. After all, the rest of the film is set only a year just after the accident, which means it is nonetheless a pretty fresh wound. Throughout the film, Sarah frequently hears the sound of a child’s laughter, or hallucinates her daughter though in the caves. So not only is she in a fight for her life, but though stuck in a seemingly hopeless scenario, Sarah is dealing with grief that feels not possible to overcome. Her ideal buddy Beth even says as a lot, encouraging Sarah to push by way of when she gets stuck in the cave, saying: “The worst thing that could have happened to you has already happened.” But even though that is vehemently accurate, it does not deter the film from doubling down on Sarah’s trauma.

‘The Descent’ Sets Up a Hopeless Situation

As pointed out, the crawlers may perhaps be the promoting point for the horror of the film, but the accurate horror comes lengthy just before the crawlers even seem on the screen. The aforementioned group of close friends (joined by some newcomers) convene at a cabin in the Appalachian mountains, exactly where they program to embark on a spelunking adventure. The group hikes up a mountain to a cave entrance and make their descent. Spelunking in basic is rather a scary activity, even when you are with educated specialists in caves that have been explored hundreds of thousands of occasions. So when the group has to navigate by way of smaller passages, it feels extremely daunting — even much more so when the passage collapses behind them and traps them. But in contrast to a guided spelunking trip, these ladies are carrying out this all on their personal, and unbeknownst to them Juno has brought them to a never ever-just before explored cave. They have no map, are down a bag of supplies due to the tunnel collapse, and any hope of assistance and rescue of any sort promptly starts to dwindle. They continue to discover the cave, figuring if they retain pushing by way of they’ll have to obtain an exit someplace. But the cave method proves to be increasingly unsafe, with caverns, holes, and not possible-to-cross passages at each turn.

Claustrophobia is one particular of the most frequent fears amongst humans — it is the worry of smaller or enclosed spaces. The Descent is fundamentally just Claustrophobia: The Movie, and even though we definitely know the caves featured in the film are just sets, they really feel far as well true. The outcome is a suffocating, horrifying, hopeless ride of terror that just never ever appears to let up. Even when there is not a cave monster on screen, we nonetheless have to watch our heroines navigate a seemingly hopeless scenario. They nonetheless have to obtain an exit somehow, though balancing across crumbly cliffs and squirming by way of the smallest of spaces.

But the claustrophobic aspect is not the only issue adding to the horror ambiance there’s also the reality that the group is functioning with minimal light, producing the currently unknown cave all the much more daunting. They each and every have headlamps, and at one particular point they use flares to light the cave. But the most prominent use is a Glowstick, which paints a lot of the scenes in an eerie green colour that tends to make it really feel like it is shot in evening vision. Speaking of which, there are also some great shots by way of a video camera, which is made use of to generate an great jump scare when the initially crawler seems to the group. The dark is but one more frequent worry, anything we all when feared as kids, and some as adults as well. But the dark mixed with the tight, enclosed space of an unknown cave? It’s a best recipe to truly make your spine tingle.

‘The Descent’s Nightmare Never Ends

An honorable mention for what tends to make the film so scary, is how it plays with the delusion and hysteria that somebody would face in this scenario. Sarah kinda serves as the audience self-insert. She’s the major character, she’s the one particular we sympathize with, and we’re rooting for her to make it out alive. So when she spots a ray of light in the distance, we rejoice she’s going to make it, and she’s going to be just fine. She scrambles up a hill of skulls and bones and pops her head out of a hole, breathing in fresh air and bathing in sunlight. Or at least, that is how the US release version of the film ends.

The ending of the original UK release is a lot much more grim and doubles down on the hopelessness we’ve felt all through the entirety of the film. In this ending, every little thing plays out the precise similar as the US ending, but it is then revealed that it was all a hallucination. She never ever escaped the cave, and we watch as she hallucinates her daughter blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. Only this is a hallucination as nicely her daughter is not there and the candles in query are in fact her torch. As the camera pans out we see practically nothing but darkness surrounding Sarah and hear the sounds of the cave dwellers closing in.

The Descent is really a master at boggling the thoughts and senses. It manages to dig deep below your skin with no possessing to rely on its monsters. Sure they’re scary and grotesque, but the accurate horror comes from the individual elements that are grounded in true-life. It’s what tends to make the film so helpful and why its scare element never ever dulls upon a rewatch. And it is why The Descent is one particular of the greatest horror films in current years.

The Descent is obtainable to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO