Omfg.
54:30 seconds into it i had to stop.
I am serious scared.
I'm done.
Fuck this movie.

Okay i had to finish it. And let me tell you now. If you can find a movie scarier then it i will pay you a million dollars. I am not lying at all. I don't know when it comes out but when it does GO BUY IT. It will scare the shit out of you. I'm having nightmares forever.

How in the heck did you get to see this movie? I've been waiting for this to come out for a long time.

I loved the director's first movie, Dog Soldiers, and people said this was even better. Can't wait till it comes out.

I can try and send it to you (if you have AIM) but it might take a while. You have a screen name?

Thanks, man, but my laptop's too crappy to download big files like that. Someone sent me a screenwriting program yesterday and it took an hour and a half to download.

I do have AIM though. Perhaps I should put that in my profile.

Thanks again.

I am annoyed with myself as I meant to write the first review for this back in June when I saw it at the cinema (I'm from the UK for those of you who don't know). I have it on DVD now (I can't BELIEVE this still hasn't been released in the U.S!) so I guess since there's a thread on it I should say my bit:

Absolutely one of the best (if not THE best) horror films I have ever seen. I'm sure these kind of words get thrown around by people all the time with films like SAW, and certain people on these boards who know what REAL horror is probably just roll their eyes at the ignorance of the person posting and move on to another thread. But seriously, this time it's the truth. I mean I personally liked the Saw films but not because I thought they were truly terrifying horror films, not at all. I know what real horror is, and this is it. I'm going to make a strong statement and say that if you don't like this film, you either can't call yourself a horror fan, or you're expectations of what a horror film should do have reached some level of pure ridiculousness as a result of all the crap that's been churned out recently, because I honestly don't see how it gets much better than this.

Sarah is trying to get on with her life after a terrible accident involving her and her family. Along with best friend Beth, she heads out into the Appalachians (it’s set in the U.S because one of the girls is American and they’re staying at her cabin, but this is a British production filmed in the UK) for a daredevil caving holiday with expert/too ambitious for her own good Juno (the American), thrill-seeking mentalist Holly, caving virgin Sam, and Sam's over-protective safety conscious sister Becca. Once inside the cave, an unexpected rock fall blocks their exit. While searching through the maze of tunnels for a way out, they find themselves hunted by a race of hungry predators, once humanoid but now monstrously adapted to live in the dark.

Although the creatures don't attack until 50 minutes into a 95 minute film, it's terrifying from start to finish. The shocking opening is possibly one of the best in existence. Never before have I seen an unexpected (and creative) jump-causing death, a beautifully executed and symbolic twist and harrowing emotion all rolled into a five minute pre-credits sequence! After this we swiftly meet the characters as they are reunited at the cabin. Some realistic and humorous dialogue ensured that I was rooting for these girls right from the start. The characters aren't heavily developed, but they all have distinct personalities which, along with their relationships with each other, are believable and enjoyable. This is the most boring part of the film and it isn't at all boring. We're treated to another breath taking and inspired jolt, which I doubt many (if any) will see coming. Then it's off to the cave (that's right, they're not even at the cave yet!). Tension builds as Juno secretly leaves the map of the cave behind. The girls descend and begin their adventure, squeezing their way through extremely narrow tunnels, hard hats scraping the rock a mere inch above them. This will have any average person squirming with discomfort, and any serious claustrophobics hyperventilating at the thought of being in their situation. The rock fall follows, and then the reason why Juno left the map behind is revealed, only increasing the level of dread even more. The nail biting continues as Becca attempts a risky climb to help the others, and then a couple of girls suffer some nasty injuries (don't watch if you're faint of heart, they really are painful to look at!) to make matters worse, and at this point I'm going "I'm absolutely terrified and we haven't even seen a f**king creature yet!". I swear this film could've dropped the whole creature part and still have been scarier than most horror films I've seen.

When the creatures finally do attack, it's well worth the wait. 45 minutes of relentless, suspenseful and very gory action. The raw performances and horrifying events just build and build to the point of being almost emotionally draining for the viewer. I have yet to even mention the brilliant direction and effective score because it's hard to notice these aspects when the story and action are so involving and terrifying. I won't spoil the ending, but it's one of the best I've ever seen. Once again it's harrowing stuff (the acting in these scenes is just brilliant and brought tears to my eyes) and the score really kicks in here with an amazing piece that compliments what's happening on screen perfectly. And if you're anything like me, you'll be left feeling like someone just threw a brick at your stomach.

If I'm straining for some gripes, then I could complain that on one occasion there is some quick cutting that made the action hard to follow. Also, since the creatures only feature in the remaining 45 minutes, the characters are killed off in quick succession and only once are we really given time to mourn and take in what's happened. But these are small things that didn't really bother me. I just didn't want to sound like I couldn't find a flaw since very rarely is a film perfect.

THE DESCENT is a film I can't recommend enough. It has everything a good film needs; a cool story, believable characters, slick direction, an effective musical score, great performances and brilliant ending. Along with these things, it has everything else a good horror film needs; a scary premise, tonnes of suspense, an abundance of scares and jumps and bucket load of gore (if you feel a horror film NEEDS that). Finally, it is living proof that a horror masterpiece can come out of a relatively low budget. I believe it was made for £3 million, probably around $6 million. Never before has a horror film scared me so consistently and made be jump so hard (with the exception of FINAL DESTINATION's bus hit). It put me on an emotional rollercoaster and I left the theatre feeling numb. Neil Marshall really knows his sh*t. I haven't seen DOG SOLDIERS so I can't compare (but I can pretty much guarantee that this one is better), and I'm not going to rave about British horror, as out of the films I've seen, this and 28 DAYS LATER are the only ones I'd bother to write home about (and this is way better than 28 Days Later too). What I will say is this; The Descent is balls-to-the-wall horror, and it sure ain't Hollywood.

10/10

Ian

I only recently heard of this one, and while everyone keeps saying how good it is and I really enjoyed "Dog Soldiers" I can't help but notice that this sounds an awful lot like that recent horror bomb, "The Cave."  Though, I'm going to bet that this one is much, much better.

...

Though, now that I think about it, I guess this was probably made before "The Cave."  Well, then, forget the above, this movie's gonna kick ass!

Wat has everyone got against Saw?

I can't say for sure, but I would bet that those that really liked "Saw" are just a more vocal minority in the horror film community vs. a more silent majority.  It seems that everyone I talk to did not enjoy either of the "Saw" films nearly as much as those that rate the films on imdb (both movies currently have a 7+ score out of ten).

As for myself, I would say the first is sort of decent, with two really, really weak performances bringing it down big time (that of writer Leigh Wennell and the usually very reliable Cary Elwes).  Also, I just did not see it as the end-all horror film that hype had made it out to be.  Had there been no hype, there is no doubt in my mind that I probably would have liked it more, which I suppose is not really the film's fault.  As for "Saw 2," I just thought it plain sucked.  More bad acting (except for the guy who played Jigsaw, though he was really just a poor man's Anthony Hopkins), a really stupid script (why was every character retarded?), and one of the worst twist endings ever.

Look, I understand that when most see a horror flick, they see it as just a fun time, and they don't mind turning their brains off for an hour and a half.  And there are certain movies out there that I enjoyed because I could shut my mind off (like "Van Helsing" or, more recently, the "Doom" movie).  But I miss smart horror flicks.  I don't like that most critics can now dismiss s**tty teen slasher flicks as garbage and nothing more... and when crap like "When A Stranger Calls" is coming out once a month, I don't blame them.  Sure, stuff like "Friday the 13th" is certainly enjoyable, but why can't we get anymore "Halloween"'s or "Dawn of the Dead"'s (though, to be fair, I thought the remake did a very good job too)?

Now, one might say I'm going painfully off topic, but here's where I'm going to bring it all together, I swear.  It seems that for the past few years, most of the really solid horror flicks have been coming from across the pond (to some on these boards, of course, this does not concern you).  "Dog Soldiers," "Haute Tension," "28 days later...," and now "The Descent" as well as the Russian film, "Night Watch."  I believe it is these fine British, French, and Russian filmmakers that will be saving the genre.

Sorry about writing the essay, but it is a subject I feel very passionately about.

Andrew, can u please send it to me through email or IM, whatever. It sounds kool...please????? I'll PM you  my IM address

I went and ordered the dvd off Amazon UK after reading the good reviews on here. Overall: pretty good, but hardly a classic.

I'm not a big horror buff, but I've seen my fair share. My interest in the genre kind of dwindled after seeing some of the crap Hollywood has been churning out recently (House of Wax anyone?)

Anyway, I thought this was great for about an hour. The opening 'shock' got my attention right away and set the tone for what was to come. Once we got inside the cave, the suspense built up very well. I had to ignore the shoddy CGI when the bats flew out though. Pretty soon, the claustrophobia set in and I was literally squirming in my seat. Excellent stuff so far.
The film reached a climax around the hour mark with a great shock death and then it was standard hack and slash with way to much screen time for our Gollum-looking friends. The last 30 minutes were terrible and tainted my experience of the excellent opening. It was like watching two different movies. A taut, superbly paced thriller, followed by a mindless gore-fest. The final fight sequence was just comical. I was literally laughing. For the first hour, I was lapping up the suspense, but as soon as we got our first glimpse of the monsters, the tension was gone, replaced by a bunch of repetitive ass-kicking heroics from some puny women armed with bones, yes, bones. Once you've seen one Gollum get stabbed in the head, you've seen enough. No need to repeat the trick on ten more Gollums.
It ended up very much like Pitch Black what with the "don't move, they can't see you" device, which was hammered home with some incredibly clunky exposition from the girl who struggled almost as much with her dodgy accent as with the delivery of said lines. "They must be completely blind and navigate by sound, like bats.." She must've seen Pitch Black too.
I'm not sure why people are raving about the ending either. It's nothing special and none too original either.

That said, I did enjoy this movie and it's a lot better than your average horror flick. I just wish they'd kept up the suspense and not blown it with a rampant gore-fest at the end. It's deftly directed and pretty well written with some decent performances but ultimately let down by a weak third act.

What a great movie.  Now that is what a scary movie is supposed to be like.  I was a little mad that Juno didn't survive because she was kicking some Gollum ass, but other than that this is one of the greatest horror movies I have ever seen.

And the ending was classic.

**** out of ****

This film is scheduled to be released in theatres in August, but I was lucky enough to find this on DVD at a nearby flea market, a few blocks from my campus. I was pretty confused at finding this here, the man told me he'd bootlegged it from a region 2 DVD. I told him I would come back and demand my money back if the DVD didn't work or it was poor quality. It wasn't at all, the picture is clear and the sound is loud. Its the actual region 2 DVD.

SPOILERS -

This film is so brilliant, I couldn't stress that enough even if I could. Its scary beyond imagination, has an excellent opening and ending, and the characters are very likable. But, one problem, it is soo easy to get Rebecca and Sam confused with one another.

The first encounter with the "crawlers" was pure attack time, never would I have expected them to revealed in such a way. SCARY! SCARY! SCARY! I thought the setup of Beth's watch was amazing and unexpected, that entire scene with Beth and Rebecca was sheer suspense.

I DON'T WANT TO SAY NO MORE....just see it in August.

But I am ashamed at Lionsgate for "fixing" up the ending, it isn't needed. Certain scenes with Sarah's daughter aren't going to make sense anymore, but whatever.

-ONEY

How come the US didnt get this one ages ago? Bizarre. This has been out for ages so I was surprised to see it mentioned on here.

I always thought they recieved UK films within the same time we recieved theirs; couple of weeks if less.

Anyway, this is a good film and worth taking a look at. It's very refreshing in a way and definitly enjoyable.

I would say the best UK horror in a long timem but agree with Dr Mabuse. The finale was a dissapointment in what really could have been a real "classic". As it is, it's just another horror.

If they changed the ending, I'm not going to see it.  That's what sets this movie apart from the lackluster American horror films that have come out of late.

Let's pick up the pace America!  Looks like I found my way into the business.  My country is in dire need of some good horror films.  Keep 'em coming Britain.