The Descent (2006)

This movie had potential to be great. I thought the premise was very intruiging: a group of women get lost while spelunking and come to discover they're being hunted by humanoid monsters. The problem is the director/writer had no idea how to create tension so the most important aspect of this movie, the horror, is left up to jump scares, and not effective ones at that. Not surprisingly, the creatures don't even show up until the halfway point, because the creator clearly couldn't come up with more than 40 minutes of being hunted by monsters. As it is, it gets repetitive after 5 minutes. On top of that, it has the most unlikeable protagonist, Sarah, I've seen in quite awhile. Her character is subject to the worst of horror movie cliches, by making idiotic decisions no real person would make, all for the sake of setting up an obvious scare. What's even more suprising, is that the secondary character, Juno, was far more interesting, and was by far the stand out of the movie. If you want to see a good psychological thriller about a group of women exploring the unknown, go watch Annihilation. If you want to see a tense horror movie about blind creatures that hunt by sound, go see A Quiet Place. Either of those movies has far more to offer in terms of unsettling horror, well executed jump scares when logical, and superior characters with understandable motivations. Stay clear of this movie!

It's taken some time for me to watch this movie. I skipped past this movie multiple times thinking it was a typical movie. I was pleasantly surprised with the story and action of this film. I will say the blood and gore found in this movie was excessive, which I think added to the movie.

What's remarkable about this low-budget British horror film is just how much tension and, frankly, sheer terror it's able to eke out of the central situation before we're even given but a glimpse of the carnivorous creatures that dwell in the dark. There's a claustrophobic, and almost panic-inducing, sense of isolation and entrapment that expertly escalates from the central cave-in in 'The Descent (2005)'. It's also thanks to the subtle yet consistent character development that we care for each and every person trapped in the caverns below and are on the edge-of-our-seats as their lives are almost constantly threatened. What's also refreshing, and somewhat exciting, is that most of the brutality comes not from the so-called crawlers - whose very existence centres around catching, killing and eating their prey - but rather from the group of women fighting their way through the caves as their battle for survival forces them to lose their innocence almost as quickly as they might lose their sanity. This brutality also makes each encounter unpredictable, with the violence always having tangible consequences. The scares are well crafted and mature too, meaning the whole picture comes together to form a cohesive and taut thrill-ride that relishes its unique horrors and never relents. 8/10

I thought I would give this movie a shot, because it has decent ratings.. I ended up turning it off halfway through, can I say BORING! I could care less about the characters, I was hoping things would pick up half way through the film but NOPE. I usually gets easily scared by horror films, but this movie was more like a comedy. I laughed way more than I should have, the creatures in the cave were not scary. This movie had so much potential, but it just ended up being silly.