Post by Fickle81 on Nov 11, 2005 3:58:01 GMT -5
MINOR SPOILERS
Having grooved to Neil Marshall's previous film Dog Soldiers and after hearing nothing but amazing things about this,I had some pretty lofty expectations...and for the most part,they were met.
I gotta say,the all female cast gave this a very interesting vibe...kinda like the all male cast in The Thing gave that movie an interesting vibe. In most horror films,women usually die fairly quick deaths (they're sometimes a bit messy,but they tend not to suffer all that much). Here,however,they're up against some nasty motherfuckers (called "Crawlers") that brutally and messily eat their prey alive...the kind of enemy that is most of the time faced by men. Combined with the fact that you spend a lot of time with these ladies and get to know them before the Crawlers enter the picture,it makes for some pretty tension filled scenes.
Claustrophobia definatly helps play a role in the film's creepyness...not to mention some great bits involving a handheld digital camera (thats in night vision mode) that at times give this a very realistic "Blair Witch Project" feel...and of course,the awsome gore and action sequences (theres one near the end that you have to see to believe). Add to all of this a nice dire "fake out" ending,and you got yourself one lean mean machine of a horror movie.
However,there are definate shortcomings. The thing I notice about Neil Marshall films is that he has some continuity issues by tending to establish certain rules and guidelines for certain aspects of the movie,only to later on completely piss on and throw the established rules out the window. In Dog Soldiers,it was having Megan being able to turn into a werewolf at will when not only was the full moon already out for hours,but her fellow "family members" were already werewolves themselves. Yea yea I know,this was done as for a major plot twist,but it still didn't make a lick of sense.
In this movie he breaks his own rules before he even establishes them,then once they're established,he follows them. I'm talking about the certain characteristic of how the Crawlers hunt. Upon studying a dead Crawler (and rather convienently coming to this conclusion,but she may have had expertise in this area,so I let it go),it is determined that they find their prey using a certain sense in place of a sense they don't have (they are conditioned to live and function in the dark underground...do the math). However there were a few moments earlier in the film where they COULD NOT have known certain characters were around UNLESS they used the sense that they DID NOT HAVE.
Also,there was a moment when a certain character was spared unrealistically. Cmon,you're telling me that Crawler couldn't tell that it WASN'T sitting on a hard rock surface? I'm not buying it.
Eventhough the long time spent with the females helped the film a lot,it was also detrimental to it because it tended to slow the pace down. Finally,there was a certain character who I wanted to see FULLY devoured...only to have the camera cut away. COME ON! You stayed with it earlier for a specific character,but you cut away from somebody that deserves it?
This film had enough greatness to it to almost reach the 4.5/5 status...however,the flaws I've presented do end up dragging it down. Nonetheless,dispite its flaws,The Descent is a wonderful horror film thats deserving of a lot of the praise it gets...I would definatly say this is horror film of the year material.
4/5
Having grooved to Neil Marshall's previous film Dog Soldiers and after hearing nothing but amazing things about this,I had some pretty lofty expectations...and for the most part,they were met.
I gotta say,the all female cast gave this a very interesting vibe...kinda like the all male cast in The Thing gave that movie an interesting vibe. In most horror films,women usually die fairly quick deaths (they're sometimes a bit messy,but they tend not to suffer all that much). Here,however,they're up against some nasty motherfuckers (called "Crawlers") that brutally and messily eat their prey alive...the kind of enemy that is most of the time faced by men. Combined with the fact that you spend a lot of time with these ladies and get to know them before the Crawlers enter the picture,it makes for some pretty tension filled scenes.
Claustrophobia definatly helps play a role in the film's creepyness...not to mention some great bits involving a handheld digital camera (thats in night vision mode) that at times give this a very realistic "Blair Witch Project" feel...and of course,the awsome gore and action sequences (theres one near the end that you have to see to believe). Add to all of this a nice dire "fake out" ending,and you got yourself one lean mean machine of a horror movie.
However,there are definate shortcomings. The thing I notice about Neil Marshall films is that he has some continuity issues by tending to establish certain rules and guidelines for certain aspects of the movie,only to later on completely piss on and throw the established rules out the window. In Dog Soldiers,it was having Megan being able to turn into a werewolf at will when not only was the full moon already out for hours,but her fellow "family members" were already werewolves themselves. Yea yea I know,this was done as for a major plot twist,but it still didn't make a lick of sense.
In this movie he breaks his own rules before he even establishes them,then once they're established,he follows them. I'm talking about the certain characteristic of how the Crawlers hunt. Upon studying a dead Crawler (and rather convienently coming to this conclusion,but she may have had expertise in this area,so I let it go),it is determined that they find their prey using a certain sense in place of a sense they don't have (they are conditioned to live and function in the dark underground...do the math). However there were a few moments earlier in the film where they COULD NOT have known certain characters were around UNLESS they used the sense that they DID NOT HAVE.
Also,there was a moment when a certain character was spared unrealistically. Cmon,you're telling me that Crawler couldn't tell that it WASN'T sitting on a hard rock surface? I'm not buying it.
Eventhough the long time spent with the females helped the film a lot,it was also detrimental to it because it tended to slow the pace down. Finally,there was a certain character who I wanted to see FULLY devoured...only to have the camera cut away. COME ON! You stayed with it earlier for a specific character,but you cut away from somebody that deserves it?
This film had enough greatness to it to almost reach the 4.5/5 status...however,the flaws I've presented do end up dragging it down. Nonetheless,dispite its flaws,The Descent is a wonderful horror film thats deserving of a lot of the praise it gets...I would definatly say this is horror film of the year material.
4/5