If you only take one of my sleeper recommendations to heart, make it “The Descent.”
I’ve been tirelessly cheerleading for this movie since it came out three years ago. Good horror demands fan support, or we deserve every mindless slasher film and horror remake we get.
“The Descent” follows a group of six athletic women who decide to check out a local cave. The spelunking trip takes a nasty turn when they realize the cave they expected to explore isn’t the one they find themselves in.
And much, much worse, they’re not alone.
“The Descent” builds a significant amount of tension courtesy of those cramped spaces, and the women prove to be both feisty and inventive. Some critics bemoaned the introduction of the second set of characters. I couldn’t disagree more.
The cave dwellers are the stars of the show, and writer/director Neil Marshall works them into the story with unforgettable results.
The DVD features both the theatrical ending an an alternate one which, from what I understand, was Marshall’s original vision.
Either way, “The Descent” deserves its place at the horror table alongside the season’s classic scare-fests.
(Photo: Six friends go spelunking in the stellar horror film “The Descent.”)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
chase 10.27.08 at 1:38 pm
Not on topic, but on a topic you’ve written about before,
check out this article in today’s Rocky,
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/27/dvd-format-victim-of-economy/
Talks about Blu-Ray, and the possibility that while folks watch their pennies during this unhappy economic time, they are holding off on buying a Blu-Ray. That, the writer says, could allow dish and cable TV time to catch up in delivery formats and push the Blu-Ray aside for good. Interesting piece.
bvorka 10.29.08 at 2:09 am
Well, I still don’t know if I like the creatures all that much, but they’re more palatable the second time around. In any event, damn, this is a fine scary film. I am not, in general, much of a horror fan, but this one is, as you say, a stand-out, something I gladly hand to anyone who asks, “Got a film that will scare me?”