Come anticipate The Descent with me (spoilers etc)

I wrote about it here:
The Descent Of Woman

I thought this was AWESOME, especially since all the female characters were totally believable and not rock climbing in bustiers and miniskirts. :D The atmosphere of the cave itself was a lot scarier than what was in it, but I thought that just showed some actual thought and effort into making the film really scary. I screamed a couple times. :/

zep, IMDb gives an account of what was taken out of the ending.

NM: I can practically guarantee it. Just from Lionsgate’s point of view they’re going to want to get as much on the disc as possible.

couldnt find a bigger version of this:

http://www.sfstation.com/images/articles/88/2088a.jpg

ok, not too bad:
Opening in fifth place was the new horror entry The Descent with an estimated $8.8M from 2,095 locations. The R-rated fright flick about a six-pack of young ladies trapped in an underground cave full of flesh-eating creatures averaged a solid $4,200 per venue. Reviews were unusually positive for the genre and distributor Lionsgate pitched The Descent in its advertising as being from the studio that brought audiences Saw and Hostel. But the opening was far short of the $18.3M and $19.6M that those low-budget hits opened to. Still, with a modest pricetag of its own, the cave exploration flick looks to make a few bucks theatrically and dig up a bigger audience when released on DVD.

especially for a movie that has been out for a year everywhere else in the world! i assume that you can rent it by now, no?

Did all the voices have some odd reverb/echo on them (so they sounded nasal even out in the cabin) or was my theater just mixed badly?

otm. the first hour was stomach-wrenching -- they really did a good job of slowly notching the tension. after the reveal, it wasn't quite as scary.

*SPOILER*

and tell me the american ending, please?

And the end of the American version, instead of "waking up"(?) and seeing her daughter, then staring spookily out over her torch, she wakes up and we hear one of the monster's scream. Basically it just makes it clear she didn't get out.

****************SPOILERS ARE OVER*****************

Upon reflection (one day): this movie was really, really fucking scary.

And seeing Juno in the car isn't much different than seeing lights turn off in the hospital. That being said, I'm still confused -- did Jessie see a different movie than me?

I dunno, even with the ending you guys are describing, I still take it to mean she didn't get out. Like, it was proof she was dreaming?

The falling-down, path to the sky and popping out the vagina ending didn't bother me at all in the theater, so I guess it worked in that way. It only really sucks when you think about it or see the British cut.

A couple of the ladies really disabused me of the notion that all English accents are teh hott.

The first non-crawler survival-thriller half of the movie was even more twitchy than the end, which was really just Sarah as Ripley: Alien killer.

Awesome awesome movie though.

http://www.movieforum.com/movies/wallpapers/horror/silenceofthelambshannibal/images/800x600.jpg

Well, I just got in from The Descent, a ladypower adventure-horror movie that derives its structure from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' stages of mourning, in addition to throwing in most of the expected cliches and plot points.

The basic outline is pretty much what you expect: the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants (including one who was struck by grisly, onscreen tragedy in the first reel) goes spelunking and shortly find themselves at war with blind mutant cannibals. The usual war movie platoon types are all present: the reckless and untrustworthy vet, the overanxious and foolhardy newbie, the cautious yet ignored expert, and of course the assortment of interchangably doomed red-shirts. I have to give props to the creature effects team for realizing that a colony of predator morlocks would neccesarily include she-morlocks, and wouldn't really be interested in clothes. Whoever was responsible for sets and matte-painting effects likewise deserves props for creating an incredibly exotic, detailed environment while not skimping on the claustrophobia and eeriness. There are plenty of memorably disorienting moments (the cave-in that means they have to find a new way out, one character's death while dangling on a rope over a bottomless pit, a duel to the death neck deep in cavern-slime) mostly lit in sickly flourescent green or kerosene torch-red for eye-candy. There are also a ton of supa-grrrl moments and signifiers (although I don't know if we needed quite as many closeups of a 'rock girl' bumpersticker as we got.)

A movie like this is obliged to stick to formula, of course, so you have to judge it based on how well it exploits that formula, and to what degree the innovations it does bring enhance or detract from it. I'd say that the absolute lack of male characters and punishment for sexuality in The Descent is reason enough to reward the filmmakers with your bucks. The fact that it's masterfully paced and shot, so the experience will reward whatever horror-junkie side of you there is is plenty of bonus, even if the inexplicable mix of accents among the characters is kind of distracting.

I may be slightly more enthusiastic about the movie than it deserves, though, since it is exactly half a pint of Sauza Gold long.

Edit -

After reading around a bit on the intertubes, I find that there's some controversy about the ending. Seems that when it was released in Europeland around a year ago, there was a different final twist than the one we USA-ers get. It doesn't matter. The twist is far and away the least interesting thing about the flick, in either form.

i agree about the twist - whatever it says, either way, was already established in the body of the film, and that's what matters. the ending is important but at the same time, just a thing, i mean, it had to end somehow.

This was pretty OK.

I'm confused, though - I don't know WHAT version I saw and the DVD I got from Netflix had bonus features, but none of them were an "alternate ending!!!"

The ending I saw was her hallucinating (???) getting out of the cave, running to the SUV, driving a bit, getting honked at by a semi, seeing Juno the "ghost" in the passenger seat, then waking up in the cave to her daughter and a birthday cake, camera pans out, The End.

What's the other version?? The Lion's Gate gestapo took it off Youtube...

Is this the movie where the front car passenger gets a rail through their head or was that Children of Men?

this one

I saw the movie but it didn't have her daughter or cake at the end. It ended with Juno next to her in the car

That was the most shocking/scary part of the movie.

xp

no way dude, the cave scenes totally gave me an asthma attack!!!

How I remember the Descent:

1. Whoa awesome poster!!!!
2. FUCK. RAIL to HEAD.
3. Cabin.
4. Cave. They're stck in liquid or something.
5. Gobbalins.

how i remember it:

1. cave
2. http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/1051/55054355.JPG

HAHAHAHA

How you remember Speed Racer:

1. Cars
2. http://weeklywire.com/ww/xtra/comic/feat-p1.gif

Someone tell that kid he can just put the little blue inhaler thing right up to his mouth

speed racer:

1. cars
2. http://www.firstaidmonster.com/images/products/FAM_ALEVE_CAPLET_100BT-1540.jpg

I think this is an excellent new format for movie reviews.

The bit with the tunnel caving in was absolutely fucking terrifying.

Everything got shit when they saw the monsters, which looked like leftovers from this:
http://www.impawards.com/1984/posters/chud.jpg

Oh, I forgot, I also had a decentish crush on short-hairedy.

is that kid sucking or blowing

This is the best horror movie in recent memory, by far.

The "alternate ending" thing indeed comes from the fact that Lionsgate released it in the States with a "happy ending" - the U.S. release cuts out the last shot of her alone in the cave hallucinating the daughter's birthday cake.

well maybe we need a happy ending for all horror movies from now on

apparently descent 2 is on the way

funnily enuff there was a little puff piece abt Ealing Studios on the local BBC news last night, Descent 2 is being filmed there right now - tho don't think Marshall is involved with it in any significant way

a really cheesy happy alternative ending would make every horror movie awesome.

for example: The Omen - "you're too late damion, you're gonna be fucked in the ass now"
Alien - "we'll I'll be a monkeys uncle. If you feed it cheetos it no longer wants to eat people"
I Am Legend - "wow that grenade almost blew me up. good thing I hid in the the secret chamber behind me and threw the grenade out before closing the door.

1. terrifying car crash, you assholes
2. introducing ladies who i won't be able to tell apart in low lighting + spelunking gear
3. omg cave, i'm never going spelunking ever, fuck you.
4. lol monsters

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/12585

MyAnna Buring, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder and Nora-Jane Noone will all be returning in The Descent 2, which is now filming London with Jon Harris behind the camera, according to Empire Online. The four stars are all returning from Neil Marshall's popular film that put a bunch of female thrill-seekers in an uncharted cave filled with creatures. The website reveals that the four stars will be returning in a flashback sequence and that the sequel picks up where the American version left off. Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, Gavan O'Herlihy, Joshua Dallas, Anna Skellern, Douglas Hodge and Krysten Cummings were all previously cast.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/uploads/descent061608.jpg

Today the first official still was posted from Pathe's The Descent 2, which stars Douglas Hodge, Krysten Cummings, MyAnna Buring, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder and Nora-Jane Noone. Directed by Jon Harris, the sequel will continue the story of Sarah, who as the only survivor of an all-female caving expedition gone horrifically wrong, suffers severe psychological trauma. Unable to speak, she accompanies a rescue team back to the cave, but events once again take a sinister turn. Read on for a look at one of the monsters from the sequel.

a classic ealing comedy

The monsters were a bit LOL in this sadly.

Amazingly THREE FILMS ALL EXACTLY THE SAME came out about spelunking gobbalins in the same year; The Descent, The Cave, and some Russian film too.

yeah forget the monsters, can we just have 90 mins of sheer claustrophobic spelunking terror?

spelunkcore

was the Cave any good?

NO

I don't understand you people, the monsters were terrifying. The shot where they're looking into the night vision view of the camera and you first see the one looking over the lady's shoulder /// HOLY SHIT

I really liked it, and found the monsters genuinely creepy. But then he went and made 'Doomsday', which looks like shit in a shit pie.

I was scared but it needed the wit and dynamic that Dog Soldiers had. Most of the women in this one where just mean. Plus the ending was ambiguous in an annoying way like in Lost In Translation...god that was awful

ugh i need to see this so bad

The shot where they're looking into the night vision view of the camera - Yeah, I think the creatures were generally done, but about 100 times scarier when shown through night vision. I hope the makers of the sequel recognize this, though I doubt the next one will be anywhere near as good as the first.

Best part by miles = blonde girl going batshit crazy in the pool of blood

"generally well done"

nnnnnnngggggggggggggggh uh uuhhhhhh

i don't remember this being any good. should i watch again?

it's really pretty scary

I almost had an asthma attack just watching it

It's good.

It reminded me I'd like to try caving.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 21:37 (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

NO!

i crawled through a tiny cave in Wales once, it was only about twenty feet long but so small. It was horrifyingly claustraphobic, yuk.

that once sequence where they go the wrong way through that narrow crack was terrifying to me, and consequently the only good part of an otherwise thoroughly shitty movie.

^^^
Yes. I reiterate what I said five months ago, the missing picture is a C.H.U.D.

Spiralli OTM.

woulda been better without the bogey monsters.

Sequel!

Have to say the original is one of my favourite horror movies of the decade. This though looks about as subtle as a brick and is unlikely to bring anything new to the table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50k3WdfN5qQ

tho I love the original as well, I don't see how they could make a proper sequel, except to execute the exact same set of circumstances on a different cast if characters, which is exactly what is seems as though they've done. So, at best, we'll get an inferior version of the original & at worst (shudder), we'll be treated to an expository backstory on the cave-monsters. I'm really kind of bummed they made a sequel to this, but I suppose it was inevitable.

Watched this last night and holy shit it is cocking terrifying.

streaming on Criterion Channel now ;)