ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies.

THERE WAS A TIME when British horror films ruled the world. Martin Scorsese has even praised the lurid glories that emerged from the house of Hammer.

Neil Marshall seems intent on pumping fresh blood into that faded genre. His Dog Soldiers was a terrific scary movie that brought added bite to a werewolf chiller. He strikes again with The Descent, an exceptionally gory, extremely well-crafted account of what happens to six women who go potholing in the Appalachian Mountains.
  
Carrying echoes of everything from ‘Deliverance’ to ‘The Evil Dead’ and the original ‘Alien’, ‘The Descent’ is a slow burner. Marshall has the confidence and the craftsmanship that you rarely see in British commercial films. He allows the tension to build and involves you in the characters before all hell breaks loose.

The film is a great showcase for Scottish actress Shauna (‘Spooks’) Macdonald who plays Sarah. The trip is a special one for her as it is a year since she lost her husband and daughter in a freak car accident. The trip is supposed to be a chance to heal and bond, but Natalie Jackson Mendoza decides to make it a little more interesting by heading off the map and into caves that have never been visited by humans.
  
You suspect this is a decision that they will all live to regret. Eventually, a hideous-Gollum like creature is seen in the shadows. The caves are infested with flesh-eating monsters and the fight for survival has begun. ‘The Descent’ is definitely not for the faint-hearted, but it delivers the kind of pulse-racing, blood-soaked mayhem that horror addicts will love.

THE DESCENT
General release, cinemas nationwide
Director: Neil Marshall
Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, Alex Reid, Mary Jane Noone
Screenwriter: Neil Marshall
Certificate: 18
Running time: 100 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2005
 

© Allan Hunter, 2005