February 16, 2010 
This week, Rhiannon Butler tried to bury Neil Marshall’s underground horror flick The Descent. For her troubles, she scored a double pass to From Paris With Love. You can win free movie tickets too by sending your mini-reviews to us here at Quickflix!
I watched The Descent and thought it was absolutely stupid. The acting wasn’t all that great. Then there was the storyline: a bunch of best friends go down into a deep dark cave, where they are not alone. I just feel like this has been done before. It was boring, it wasn’t at all that scary, and at the end of the movie, I thought: “What? It ends like THAT!” SERIOUSLY! And to think they made a second one. A lot of people have talked to me about this movie and they think it’s terrifying and scary, but it just didn’t do it for me. I would rather die of boredom then watch a movie so ridiculously un-scary. There was one point where one of girls reassures their friend who recently lost their child? “You know, just relax you will get through this, the worst has already happened to you”. So you’re down in the cave, scared out of your wits and your best friend is reminding you of the worst moment of your life. Yeah great, way to encourage someone!
Rhiannon, if you can’t see how scary The Descent is, than I can only assume you are as blind as the sightless monsters that terrorise the ladies in this film! Hmm, that’s mean. I apologise. I always take these things too far. You say you weren’t scared? Fair enough. That’s totally acceptable. For what it’s worth – I WAS TERRIFIED OUT OF MY MIND the first time I saw The Descent. Marshall masterfully orchestrates horrifying sequence after horrifying sequence. Even if the women in this film didn’t come across any beasties, the claustrophobic drama of being trapped in an underground cave would be frightening enough. Of course, there are beasties – and they are the stuff of nightmares. The Descent is bloody, ballsy and very, very brutal. And although Rhiannon disagrees, I think the final moments of this movie are among the most heartbreaking and terrifying of any horror film. A disturbing final coda that rivals Carrie, Don’t Look Now and The Blair Witch Project. The best horror film of the noughties.
I'm with you Rhiannon (sorry Simon). The scariest thing for me was that they were trapped underground, not that a mass of obviously CGI creatures were after them. Thought this would be WAY scarier than it was (and I hate scary movies).
This movie was appallingly disappojnting – I'm with Rhiannon. I went expecting a good scare but this movie was just so lame. It couldn't muster atmosphere, acting, direction or plot development and unfortunately doesn't even rate on the "so bad its good" scale. I would never recommend this movie to anyone, for any purpose.
I thought the Descent was an excellent horror film. Like most horror movies, you need to be in the mood. There was a lot of hype over the this when it was released, and the marketing was pretty cheap shot at the time – "Best horror film since *insert classic here*" etc.. I think this would have contributed to the fact that there was a mixed reaction overall with the fans, but if you put that aside you'll find that the Descent is actually quite a brutal and fantastic confined piece of work. The UK have been kicking ass in this genre lately!!
great film, one of the best around at the time.
Totally agree with you Rhiannon – i found the movie boring and the characters stupid and irritating to the point that I was happy with their ending but not necissarily the ending of the actual film. Left me feeliong that I had wasted a couple of hours when I could have been doing something better
I thought it was excellent and the critters aren't CGI, they're dudes in suits. If people weren't afraid, they're either lacking in imagination or their home theatre needs a serious upgrade. It's horrifying. 🙂
Hey Jodie, I know what you mean, could have been doing something WORTH doing in my time… that movie annoyed me so much!Rhiannon