The Descent

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

That trailer gives away far too much, so avoid if you can.

Neil Marshall's Spelunking horror film from a few years back is pretty damn great. Works wonders in a theatre. Especially with a bunch of girls who don't know anything beyond that there are some chicks and they are in a cave. The survival horror of the first half is effective enough to be scary but they crank things up a notch from there.

What I love about this film as opposed to that other cave horror film from the same year "The Cave" (which was essentially the same story but rated pg-13 and with less interesting characters) is that the setting doesn't feel like a stage. It doesn't look lit by studio lights. You can't see around the corners, the space isn't magically visible by ambient light. In The Descent the frame constantly trails off into pitch black darkness and the lighting motivation is more clear and believable. It's probably not that big of an issue for most people but it really helped sell the situation and up the suspense for me.

Forget the sequel, which doesn't even make sense here as it picks up from the happier U.S. ending of the first film, while we have the original european ending which somewhat negates the possibility for the sequel anyway. This is the one that works for me. It's tense, pretty brutal and manages a few good scares too.