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Movies / On DVD / The Descent
The Descent

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The Descent (2006)

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Reviews Counted:159

Fresh:134

Rotten:25

Average Rating:7.3/10

Consensus: Deft direction and strong performances from its all-female cast guide The Descent, a riveting, claustrophobic horror film. In this low-budget import from Scotland, director Neil Marshall has masterfully created a spelunking nightmare, which doubles as a compelling meditation on morality, vengeance, and the depths to which we might go for survival.

Rated: 18 [See Full Rating] for strong violence/gore and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:08-07-2005

Synopsis: THE DESCENT is Neil Marshall’s hotly anticipated follow up to his 2002 hit DOG SOLDIERS. Directed by Marshall from his own script, it tells the story of an all-female caving expedition that goes... THE DESCENT is Neil Marshall’s hotly anticipated follow up to his 2002 hit DOG SOLDIERS. Directed by Marshall from his own script, it tells the story of an all-female caving expedition that goes horribly wrong, and stars Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone and Myanna Buring. Set in a cave system deep in the Appalachian Mountains, Marshall describes his film as ‘DELIVERANCE goes underground’. On a daredevil caving holiday, six women friends are unexpectedly trapped underground when a rock fall blocks their exit. Searching the maze of tunnels for a way out, they find themselves hunted by a race of fearless, hungry predators, once humanoid but now monstrously adapted to live in the dark… As the others battle for their lives, Sarah (Macdonald), still recovering from a mental collapse brought on by the recent deaths of her family, is fighting for her sanity. When old secrets are revealed, the friends turn on one another, causing the group to implode. Betrayed and desperate, Sarah realizes that to make it back to the surface, she must become as savage as the creatures themselves. THE DESCENT was filmed on location in Scotland and at Pinewood Studios from December 2004 to February 2005, and was fully financed and produced by Celador Films. Celador’s Paul Smith is executive producer and Christian Colson is producer. The film reunites Marshall with DOG SOLDIERS’ director of photography, Sam McCurdy, and production designer, Simon Bowles. Celador’s previous credits include the Oscar-nominated DIRTY PRETTY THINGS. THE DESCENT movie has already had a hugely successful release both critically and commercially in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. In September, 2005 the film took the top competition prize -- the Méliès d’Argent -- for Euro feature at Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden, and in November, Neil Marshall won Best Director and the film Best Technical Achievement (for the Editing) at the British Independent Films Awards (BIFA's) (THE DESCENT was nominated for Best Film). It has also been nominated for Best British Film, Best British Director and Best British Producer by the London Film Critics Circle (the winners are announced in February), an unheard of achievement for a genre piece. --© Lionsgate Films [More]

Starring: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder

Starring: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone, MyAnna Buring, Oliver Milburn, Molly Kayll

Director: Neil Marshall

Director: Neil Marshall
Producer: Christian Colson
Screenwriter: Neil Marshall
Composer: David Julyan
Studio: Lions Gate Films

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Reviews for The Descent

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121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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It may sound bizarre to say that a film about women under threat of vicious, violent death is a triumph of feminism, but there we are...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
08/04/06
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

It will be hard to find a better horror film this year.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
08/04/06
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

You genuinely care about the six women who enter a cave in the Appalachian mountains, only to discover it crawling with flesh-eating predators who have adapted to life in the dark.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
08/03/06
John Monaghan
John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press

An object lesson in making a tightly-budgeted, no-star horror pic work through razor-sharp technique and committed performances alone.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 1 Comment
08/03/06
Derek Elley
Derek Elley
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's a film stripped to bloody basics, a ferocious and taut exercise in action horror that recalls early James Cameron, with more gore and less sentimentality.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
08/03/06
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The babes are buff and the scares bountiful in Neil Marshall's full-throttle horror freakout about six women on a caving expedition.

comment Comment
08/03/06
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It plays every emotional key of fright and despair with the skill of a concertmaster at a cathedral organ.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
08/03/06
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

[Marshall] expertly maps out those raw nerve endings while creating credible characters who speak and act like real people rather than the usual horror archetypes.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
08/03/06
Michael Rechtshaffen
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Taut direction and convincing performances impart a terrifying sense of claustrophobia and isolation.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
08/03/06
M. K. Terrell
M. K. Terrell
Christian Science Monitor

[Marshall] does have a nice taste for horror imagery: The first glimpse of one of the creatures, as debased and revolting and craven as a living thing could be, will stay with you a long time.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
08/03/06
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post

One Aliens reference in this film had me welling up: A blood-soaked Sarah raises her torch, Sigourney Weaver-like, and lets out a banshee war cry.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
08/03/06
Tirdad Derakhshani
Tirdad Derakhshani
Philadelphia Inquirer

The Descent is simply a shock-'em, shake-'em genre piece with scare scenes that, however effective, suggest cheap-shop versions of a lot we've seen before.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
08/03/06
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune

The movie's thrill-and-chill sequences are nasty and suspenseful, though once the creatures start to attack, the scenes get repetitive.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
08/03/06
David Germain
David Germain
Associated Press

The Descent isn't perfect, or even entirely original…But it's a lot better, and fresher, than it would be if (or, gulp, when) Hollywood chews it up and spits it out again.

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
08/03/06
Phoebe Flowers
Phoebe Flowers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The Descent doesn't need to exist: a script that goes beyond outlandish. Actors who'd flunk out of Make Believe 101. Blind creatures that see things. Did we mention continuity?

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
08/03/06
Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams
Newsday

Marshall understands that sometimes there's nothing quite as oddly exhilarating as the bleakest, no-way-out kind of horror.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
08/03/06
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A number of narrative twists keep you guessing and, while the pace stays strong and steady, building the gory mayhem to a bloody crescendo.

Full Review Source: Baltimore City Paper | comment Comment
08/03/06
Gary Dowell
Gary Dowell
Baltimore City Paper

Aside from its high concept -- instead of Snakes on a Plane, it's Chicks in a Cave (with monsters!) -- place-setting is almost all Marshall does.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
08/03/06
Ian Grey
Ian Grey
Orlando Weekly

Made with a connoisseur's love of muck, blood, inky darkness, and equal parts elegance and ewwww, The Descent raises the level of the post-Blair Witch, post-Open Water horror game.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
08/02/06
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Hugely claustrophobic and skin-crawlingly intense ... and then the flesh-eating monsters come out. Hyperbole be danged: This is the best, purest horror film in years.

Full Review Source: The Stranger (Seattle, WA) | comment Comment
08/02/06
Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
 
 
121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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