The Descent

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The Descent
Directed by	Neil Marshall
Produced by	Christian Colson
Written by	Neil Marshall
Starring	Shauna Macdonald Natalie Mendoza MyAnna Buring Nora Jane Noone Alex Reid Saskia Mulder
Music by	David Julyan
Cinematography	Sam McCurdy
Editing by	Jon Harris
Distributed by	Pathé Distribution Lions Gate Films
Release date(s)	July 8, 2005 August 4, 2006
Running time	95 min
Country	UK
Language	English
Budget	~ £3,500,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

For the book by Jeff Long, see The Descent.

The Descent is a British horror film, written and directed by Neil Marshall. It was released on July 8, 2005, having premiered at the Dawn Horror Film Festival on July 6, 2005. It has received a cinematic release in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The Descent was both a commercial and critical success, with box office receipts from the UK alone totalling over £2.6 million and a total North American gross of approximately £13 million. The Descent received very positive reviews from many critics and a sequel is currently being planned.^[1][2]

The story concerns a group of friends on an ill-fated caving trip occuring a year after one of the members experienced a terrible loss.

[edit] Plot

Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) is recovering from a car accident that happened a year previous, which killed her husband and daughter. She and her friend, Beth, (Alex Reid) are invited to the Appalachian Mountains by their mutual friend, Juno (Natalie Mendoza). At a cabin, they join up with Juno, Holly (Nora-Jane Noone), and two sisters, Sam (MyAnna Buring) and Rebecca (Saskia Mulder). As they reminisce over an old photo, Sarah is prompted to say "Love each day." explaining that it was the personal motto of her dead husband.

A group photo of the ill-fated expedition, from left to right: Holly, Sam, Rebecca, Juno, Sarah & Beth.

They drive to the caves and begin to explore. When a tunnel collapses behind them, it is revealed that Juno has brought them to an unexplored cave system in a misguided effort to reunite the group. They continue on as their only hope is to find another exit. Holly breaks her leg in a fall. As the others assist her, Sarah wanders off and sees a pale humanoid figure drinking from a puddle of stagnant water. It disappears into the darkness when it senses her, and when Sarah tells the others, they dismiss it as a hallucination.

They come under attack from the creatures (dubbed 'crawlers'), who target the injured Holly. While the others scatter in terror, Juno sees that Holly is still alive and fights with a crawler. She kills him, but stabs Beth through the throat by accident. Beth grabs Juno's necklace as she falls to the ground. The remaining members are separated. After Juno kills one of the creatures, they examine it and discover they are blind and hunt by sound. Sarah hallucinates about her dead daughter at several points, and as she explores the caves, comes across Beth, who is mortally wounded. Sarah sees the pendant that Beth got from Juno. The inscription is "Love Each Day" and shows to Sarah that Juno had been having an affair with her late husband. At her request, Sarah euthanises Beth.

Juno finds Sam and Rebecca, and tells them she has found an exit route that may have been marked by previous explorers. The other two women want to leave Sarah behind, but Juno refuses. Sam and Rebecca are both killed by crawlers and Juno narrowly escapes. She meets up with Sarah and lies to her about Beth. The two make their way onwards together, only to find a group of crawlers between them and a possible exit. A fight ensues, and the women kill the creatures.

Sarah then shows the necklace to Juno, revealing that she knows about the affair with her husband. She then cripples Juno, leaving her to be killed by the crawlers. Fleeing, Sarah trips and falls, and is knocked unconscious. She dreams of finding the exit to the caves and escaping. The sight of a bloodied Juno startles Sarah from her dream. Screaming, she awakes, still in the cave, hallucinating that her daughter is there with her. Crawler screams are heard, and the film ends.

The North American poster for The Descent based on photographer Philippe Halsman's In Voluptas Mors.

[edit] Alternate ending

The Descent was released in North America with approximately a minute cut from the end. Sarah escapes the cave and sees Juno, but the film does not cut back to the cave.

In the August 4, 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was stated that the ending was trimmed because viewers didn't like its "überhopeless finale". Lionsgate marketing chief Tim Palen said, "It's a visceral ride, and by the time you get to the ending you're drained. [Director Neil] Marshall had a number of endings in mind when he shot the film, so he was open [to making a switch]." Marshall compared the change to the ending of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, saying "Just because she gets away, does that make it a happy ending?"

The North American Unrated DVD includes the original ending.

[edit] The Insanity Theory

Many fans of this film argue that the monsters did not exist at all. Several clues exist to support this notion, most notably that Sarah has been through an extremely traumatic experience already and has previously suffered from hallucinations. The Insanity Theory posits that Sarah herself either killed or left her companions to die. An interview with director Neil Marshall at dreadcentral.com lends further credence to the theory, as he states "...she's killed all her friends...". ^[3]

Marshall acknowledges this theory in the DVD commentary, yet says that this is only one possible interpretation. The fact that a sequel is being planned may support the theory that the monsters were real.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

The Descent opened on 329 screens in the UK and received limited releases in other European countries, eventually earning more than £6 million in box office receipts. It has received many positive reviews in the UK and the USA, with 106 out of 128 critics on Rotten Tomatoes giving positive reviews, resulting in an 83% freshness rating. On its debut weekend in the US, The Descent opened with a three-day gross of $8.8 million, and finished with $26,005,908. Total worldwide box office receipts are $42 million.

Roger Ebert's editor, Jim Emerson, reviewed the film for Ebert's column when Ebert went out for surgery. He gave the film four out of four stars. He wrote, "This is the fresh, exciting summer movie I've been wanting for months. Or for years, it seems."

[edit] Trivia

• At no point in the film are actual caves seen, all of the scenes are filmed with sets, miniatures and blue screen digital images.
• In his Eatmybrains.com interview, Marshall said Pathe deliberately released The Descent first "just to try and beat The Cave to the punch, piss on their chips a bit."
• The Number 30 bus destroyed at Tavistock Square during the terrorist bombings of London in July 2005 had been carrying a placard on the side advertising the film. The placard featured a bloodied Shauna Macdonald staring out of darkness, and quotes from several positive reviews of the film. Famously, as seen in Mario Rosenberg's award nominated photos of the scene, the half of the placard left undamaged by the blast read "Outright Terror, Bold and Brilliant," a quote from a review by Total Film magazine. Several commentators, including writers for Variety and The Times, remarked on this unfortunate coincidence. Three of the four bombs detonated that day specifically targeted the London Underground transport system, leaving many victims trapped underground for several hours. There were initially concerns that the film, due for release the next day, might have to be delayed for reasons of sensitivity but ultimately Pathé chose to release the film with a slightly retooled marketing campaign. The US promotional campaign, managed by Lionsgate Films, is significantly different from the original European one.
• The skull of naked women motif for the title picture is based on Philippe Halsman's In Voluptas Mors photograph, minus one woman.

[edit] See also

• Competing films with similar plots

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Official American site
• Official South African site
• Official trailer
• The Descent at the Internet Movie Database
• The Descent at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Descent at Metacritic
• Eat My Brain interview
• July 2006 Interview with Neil Marshall
• The Descent at Box Office Mojo