The Descent

I missed this when it came out and have spent the past 17 years hearing about how awesome it is. I was hopeful it'd live up to the hype, but past experience has taught me to be very wary. For every movie that does, another fails in spectacular fashion. I'm happy to report that my fears were unfounded. This thing is legit. One flaw to mention and then we can get on with the effusive praise: outside of Sarah and Juno, the other members of the group might as well get intros from Teen Girl Squad. The movie makes no attempt to define them beyond "a friend". I only watched it less than 12 hours ago, and right now, I can name one of the other four (Beth), and all I can tell you about any of them is one has short spiky hair, and they're all women. For all the movie does right, it's disappointing it can't do more in building up the characters beyond making you afraid for them because of the situation they're in. They're not shallow in the way your typical slasher victims are; they're just not given the kind of depth you'd hope for. Beyond that, though, this movie has got it going on in every department. The opening car accident that triggers the events of the movie lets you know this movie won't pull any punches. Once the ladies get to the cave, it's on. The movie wastes no time ramping up the creep factor; the opening area of the cavern is beautiful, but you know things are about to get bad, so you'll never let yourself feel it. The movie plays with that, amping up the tension through claustrophobia. As they go deeper and deeper, you feel the walls close in, especially as Juno pushes them into more dangerous positions, until catastrophe strikes, and their way out is blocked by a cave-in. Soon after, just after the halfway point, the movie switches from "scary movie about being trapped underground" to "scary movie about being trapped underground and OH SHIT THERE'S FERAL GOLLUMS DOWN HERE". The movie's direction is absolutely awesome. The pace is so breezy, you won't feel the passage of time, but you will feel the cave walls around you. The score is used only when needed, often letting the hollow silence of the cave swallow sound, or the echoes to increase the fear. The gore effects are outstanding, as these women are forced to fight off things that are only barely human. The gore also doesn't feel like gore for the sake of it; these things are feral monsters, they're not going to be delicate, and the ladies can't afford to be gingerly in their own defense. Every victory they have is earned, and every loss is painful. And what brings it all together is the acting, especially Shauna Macdonald as main character Sarah, and Natalie Mendoza as Juno. Theirs is a complicated relationship, for one very specific reason, and Juno manifests it by being reckless and short-sighted and egotistical. Sarah, still reeling a year on from losing her husband and daughter, is forced to reckon with her own desire to live on in the caverns. Eventually, the issues between them come to the surface (long before either of them do) and they have to deal with that on top of monsters trying to eat their flesh. Both are great characters, but Juno might be a little more interesting in that she's never outright framed as an antagonist, but definitely a careless, thrill-seeking, selfish jerk that can't even be honest with herself, let alone others. It gives her a lot of complexity. Sarah's depth is not as interesting, but more relatable; she experiences a devastating loss and is forced to grow past it in a traumatic way. Both actresses put their all into their characters. They're the emotional center of this movie. So, yeah, go watch this. It's awesome. I'm annoyed I didn't see it sooner, but I'm glad I finally saw it. Another home run for this year's Hooptober. Hooptober 2022 movie #21/31.