From the dual meaning of the title to its relentless pacing, "The Descent" is one of the smarter, scarier endurance tests to hit screens in a long time. Fair warning: If you don't like getting jolted out of your seat by sudden shocks and great, slimy lashings of gore, pick another flick. "The Descent" opens as a group of outdoorsy women friends come to the end of their white-water rafting trip. As they pack up their gear, British writer-director Neil Marshall sows the scene with hints of uneasy personal undercurrents. Before you get a chance to sort anything out, though — wham — the movie springs its first whiplash shock. Read the full review
Six girlfriends meet in a remote part of the Appalachians for their annual caving trip. Deep below the surface of the earth, disaster strikes when a rock falls and blocks their route back to the surface. The girls soon learn that something else lurks under the earth: a race of monstrous humanoid creatures that are adapted perfectly to life in the dark.
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone
Run time: 99 minutes
Release date: August 4, 2006
Rating: R for strong violence/gore and language.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: B+
"Marshall wants his movie to drive you half insane with suspense — and mostly he succeeds."
Austin American-Statesman: 3 of 5 stars
"This taut British import preys on our most vulnerable phobias, from cramped, unlighted spaces to the idea of bogeymen crouched in the dark."
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