THE DESCENT (2005)
January 3rd 2009 10:04
Category: No Category
Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) goes for a gory swim in The Descent
Plot similarities to The Cave (2005) are striking, but the latter is a breezy ride by comparison. The performances in The Descent are compelling, genre clichés refreshingly stretched and then subverted, and the punches just keep on coming. The psychological warfare between the two leads is intriguingly understated and layered, and gets unleashed in typical horror fashion on the monsters whose evolutionary characteristics are lapse-prone and - in good genre tradition - require considerable suspension of disbelief. The admirably consistent cynicism, which permeates the rather condescending (both to the characters and the viewers) tone of The Descent, might however be a bitter pill to swallow for some – the only glimmer of humour provided by the nervous giggles and occasional vertical jumps of the audience members.
Director Neil Marshall has carved a cosy (if rather dark) niche for himself as the new British indie horror guru and has multiple awards to prove it. His first feature, Dog Soldiers (2002) was about soldiers fighting werewolves in the Scottish woods and the most recent project, entitled Doomsday (2008), relates the story of a deadly pandemic in a post-apocalyptic future. Despite the fact that in The Descent Marshall hammers home his point about how easily the human race reverts to monstrosity and depravity, in the end the film’s conclusion is somehow satisfying; I admit I was definitely glad when it was over.
Review by Patricia Bieszk
© Copyright P. Bieszk 2006
First published in The Pundit, July-August 2006, p. 13.
| 40 |
| Vote |
