The Descent

I take issue with some of the character stuff, but the rest was fun enough to forgive those grievances. I really wish they wouldn't have ruined the cave-people reveal in the trailer though since that was one of the highlights.

I love 2/3 of the movie.

The claustrophobia effect with the spelunking was way more effective than the creatures. The third act is a bloody mess but it doesn't ruin the movie completely.

It's good.

I believe the ending was altered for US audiences. This makes me want to see the DVD version, so I can catch the original ending.

I'm with you there. Nick talked in his review about how he wished the movie would've reflected on the creature history (at least I think it was Nick), but if anything, that's what I loved - an absence of over-explanation.

Sure would've been nice to have better characters or an ending that wasn't so bug-fucked (the unrated/international ending was better but not tremendously so). Still, the production design was aces. I think the DVD said something about only having 2 different cave sets which were just dressed and lit slightly differently. Which is neat, because I wouldn't have guessed.

The original ending is phenomenal. I suggest that everyone who hasn't seen it check it out asap.

Echoing what has already been said, but it really is one of those horror films that proves the rule that sometimes what you don't see is far scarier. Strangely, even though I knew the premise of the film, it fell apart for me the second the creatures finally attacked. I loved everything up until that moment. The scene of the one girl freezing up inside the passageway as it begins to collapse..shivers. I just found repeated scenes of guys in monsters suits leaping out and attacking to be tiresome and a huge let down after the superb build-up and brilliantly crafted scene of claustrophobic horror in the passageway.

I agree completely. I went in with no knowledge of the movie other than Neil Marshall was behind it, and had the impression that there were no monsters(didn't see the trailer, didn't read any reviews). I mainly went because the idea of a film based around a group left to their own devices in a claustrophobic nightmare seemed awesome to me.

I actually groaned when the monsters showed up. Still enjoyed it, but I concur with your point about monsters being a huge letdown.

Climbers vs Crawlers. I really dug this movie, but the insta-crush I developed on the original Juno, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, certainly didn't hurt.



Will echo the love for the passageway scene; I'm not super claustrophobic but being in that situation would give me a fierce panic attack.

Really liked the monster designs and the fact we never learned their 'backstory' to any great degree; it seems unnecessary to me. I'll concede that the movie does lose it's way a bit when it turns into monsters jumping out from every corner and badass chicks destroying them with climbing gear, but it's nice to see an all-female cast not be stereotyped into the typical scared, running away and tripping every 5 feet scream-queens of most horror films and instead being just as rotten, mean, and deadly as any group of men have ever been.

Not to sound to sour about it, but people who are let down that monsters show up: I can't help but think it's wrong to fault the movie for misplaced expectations. I totally agree that the movie would have worked brilliantly without any sort of creatures and just been the characters dealing with the "stuck" situation, but none of the promotional material ever sold it as such. The "big" image from the film is a girl neck-deep in a pool of blood and the trailer clearly shows the camcorder monster arrival.. it was what it was. Though I know you didn't see any of that, Jake.

ETA: You know, I don't think that last paragraph really gets across any point I might think I have properly. Saying your expectations are off for not liking the monster stuff as much as the stuff leading up to it doesn't really make sense; you knew monsters were coming thanks to the trailers and such, it just didn't work as well for you as the rest. To which I say - fair enough. Good point. Valid opinion.

So disregard my sour grapes, please.

Gotta agree that the claustrophobic tone of the film prior to the introduction of the monsters was way more scary than the more traditional horror stuff at the end. I caught this on DVD and wish I'd seen it in the theater, but I'm glad I got to see the original ending. It made the movie that much creepier.

We'll make a horror fan out of Moltisanti yet.
This is one of my recent favorites. The right blend of suspense and action.

This. I had no problems with there being monsters. Like I said, I knew the premise. It's the execution that I felt let it down. When I speak of the successful build-up, I'm including the early, fleeting glimpses of the creatures.

Molt is being converted whether he likes it or not.

Descent and Night of The Creeps... What's next?

If he watches SUSPERIA we will be through the looking glass.

Although, he just might like DEMONS...

I feel the creatures were the sand on face if you will. They provided that last little step to bring the characters over the brink and into bat shit survival mode.

If shit wasn't bad enough as it was, there has to be canniballistic creatures wanting to eat your spleen.

I for one, enjoyed what the creatures did for the film. Of course, I wouldn't mind another film where it's a purely about spelunking/cave exploring survival.

Save that shit for Imax.

Oh, Molt would LOOOVE Demons.

Molt, see that one ASAP.

The creatures were an integral part of the story, but in terms of my mood while watching the film, the first half of the film scared me shitless (being trapped in small spaces = AHHHHHHHHHH!) while the latter half was a fun ride. During horror films in general, any scenario that I can imagine myself really being caught in is much scarier than fictional ghosts, monsters, and creatures.

The other thing I love about this movie is that I tend to root for the bad guys in horror films because let's face it, seeing people get hacked, whacked, and eaten in creative ways is always fun. But I genuinely liked this group of girls (save for the annoying backstabber) and wanted to see them escape.

Edit: I haven't seen this in a while and I'm trying to remember both endings. The American version has *swipe* the main chick escaping while the original has that being a hallucination and the main character is still in the cave. Also, I seem to remember that the original version alludes to the fact that there are no creatures but the protagonist went nuts and killed all her friends. Am I just making that up?

Personally, I can see this being way scarier than the original.

There's definitely the suggestion that the creatures are a figment of her imagination. The problem I had with the final third of the film is that it just follows conventional horror movie beats a little too slavishly, deflating the tension built up by the wonderfully claustrophobic, tense sequences prior to that. The initial attack acts as a wonderful release for that tension thanks to the chaotic response the characters have to the creatures, but really the creature moments after that really feel more like a distraction from the characters' emotional and psychological breakdowns, and there lies the real meat of the film for me.

But the creature moments exist to act as a metaphor for the underlining relationship between these women. The unspoken issues such as betrayal, desertion, and courage in the face of despair are brought to the forefront and made immediate through the use of slimy monsters.

I'm not sure it's the creature aspect so much as the execution of those scenes. The early spelunking scenes are remarkably suspenseful and the direction very tight, and then when the cave creatures hit it's a lot of blurs and blood splatters. Personally I really like the movie as a whole, cave creatures and all.

I love you. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Thanks.

Couldn't agree more.

Which is why I enjoyed the initial confrontation, because it works as a means of finally severing the false notions of friendship these characters have built their relationships on. Having said that, many of the creature attacks from that moment on really do nothing but try to provide moments of horror and guignol for the audience. Unfortunately these attacks just feel too familiar to appreciate them on the same level as everything else up to that point. My problem doesn't lie with the presence of the creatures themselves, but with Marshall's willingness to fall back on convention when they become the driving force of the film.

I actually really liked the chaos of that first scene.

Uh, is that the real poster? Just decent? Why would I want to see a movie that has a subtitle telling me it's only going to be okay?

This was definitely one of my favorite horror flicks of the last decade or so. I don't think it's what I'd call a Great Movie or anything like that, but I feel that it succeeds on a number of a levels. I like that Marshall is able to create a real sense of dread before the monsters even show up. Personally, I don't feel that the monsters detract from the film, but that's just me.

Not quite.

See: http://chud.com/forum/member.php?fin...poster&t=99920

I was making a cheap decent/descent joke.

Great movie. I've only seen it once, when I picked up the dvd, and this thread has inspired me to watch it again. I'll have to give the commentary a listen also.

Had some genuine fright moments that were actually scary and got me. Only two flicks in recent years have done this. The Descent, and the Pang Bros. The Eye. And I see a lot of horror movies.

In the original thread, someone (I forget, sorry) said something like "you can't mash together Alien and Aliens and hope for the best." That summed it up pretty well for me.

Plus having to fight an angry boner whenever Juno was onscreen didn't help matters.

*angrily stomps back to the 'Let's Discuss Feminism' thread*

Especially because it's not just a fight vs. the monsters. The interesting stuff is Juno's accident, and the way the split-up groups react, and the gears turning in Sarah's mind. You couldn't have that without the monsters, I don't think, but the film definitely doesn't abandon its best elements when they show up.

The US ending is just terrible. It makes no sense at all and I'm glad that I didn't see that ending to start with.

Too much sugar coating for my horror tastes.

I usually don't have much sympathy for films that go through all the trouble and then rub you on the head saying, "It's all better, see?"

I was willing to forgive it because there's another ending, the original ending.

The last little shock is silly, but I don't mind her SPOILER, YO-





... making it out alive. If the theme is about surviving a trauma, it's apt. Nothing wrong with a happy ending if it's earned.

***Spoiler***




Basically I'm refering to "Zombie Juno" showing up in the car. Such a bullshit move. I have no problem with Sarah or whatever her name is making out of the cave. It's just the nonsensical ending twists in horror movies that I hate so much. Either she stays in the cave or she gets out but please no last second scares from left field.

It's been awhile, but (spoilers):

The US ending isn't any 'different' than the International ending, it is just a shortened version. The original ending is she gets out of the cave, gets in the truck and takes off. Sees Juno sitting beside her, ah scary! Wakes up and realizes everything that just happened was a dream from when she took a nasty spill. Pull out on shot of her imagining her daughter and the birthday cake.. still in the cave. Bleak.

the US ending just ends after she see's Juno in the "dream", only we don't realize it's a dream. I don't get how that's sugar coated or an "it's all better, see?" ending, it just doesn't throw in the extra hopelessness of her never actually escaping the cave.

Doesn't make any sense though, unless you go with the 'shes crazy!' theory, which would be a total cheat. They just shortened it to a cheap scare ending for audiences who don't like to feel bummed out when leaving the theatre. Or as we like to call them, pussies.

ETA: Between this thread and the show of support in the two the Mist threads, I'm loving the actual movie discussions going on right now. And I'm infinitely glad the people who don't care for aspects of this movie are taking the higher ground (like, reasonable and thought-out reasons for their opinion) than most of the Mist folks who quickly reverted to 'its stupid and gay. i laffed at that shit. fuck the movie. i would do THIS if it was me!'

Sorry, but to hell with spoiler warnings. If you're reading this thread you should've seen the movie by now.

I agree generally as it pertains to most movies, but here I think it serves a specific purpose, which is to say that Sarah will never be free of what she does to Juno. She'll always be haunted. It's interesting because it's diametrically opposed to how the UK cut ends.

ETA: Speaking of spoiler warnings, please no MIST spoilers here. I haven't seen it yet.

Actually, I like this theory. I guess it's easy to dismiss it as a cheap scare ending but that at least ties it into the events and theme of the movie.

That said, I hope they never go along with the sequel they were thinking about doing. The plot, according to wikipedia:

Talk about Aliens.. . And you just know Juno is the "unexpected survivor" because no one else would be worth the intrigue.

I agree, horrible idea to do a sequel to this movie.

However, if it must be done, let it be a Wrong Turn 2...


P.S. I've enjoyed this discussion, as it's been the only discussion outside of me telling my friends and family to see it. I needed to talk substance on this film. And I've also fallen in love with BobClark.

The cast commentary is almost jarringly light-hearted and giggly compared to the images onscreen. Still, those sexy accents are worth a listen.

Any interest I might have had in a sequel, however slight, is completely eradicated.

Quoted for troof.

I agree with everything that's been said about the effectiveness of the film up until the point where the creatures show up. But additionally, I really didn't like the way that it devolved into an action film toward the end. If I wanted to see girls kicking monster ass, I'd watch Buffy. And it doesn't even make sense in this context. If these creatures are this ineffective in their own environment, how have they even survived this long? One of them stepped right on a living human being without even noticing, for god's sake. That's just plain stupid.

Because they've never encountered humans before. This is just as new for them as it is for the women. They have senses that evolved to find water and hunt small things, not to fight primates with tools and weapons.

And this makes them incapable of smelling or hearing a living, breathing thing that their foot is resting on, simply because it's trying to lay still? Yes, miracles of evolution.

Come on, the graboids were better thought out than that.

Yeah, animals that can't see well often have over-developed smell or hearing. I would assume that these creatures were similar to bats in that they could sense their prey by emitting sound or smelling something foreign to their habitat. In any case, I don't mind this aspect. As the original ending suggests, the creatures may not even exist.

I don't think this is true. I haven't seen this in years, but I'm pretty sure I remember the girls finding studs in the cave (whatever those clip-thingys are that spelunkers use) left behind by some other poor souls. And weren't there skeletons or skulls or something in the blood pool?