HAPPY GALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! And happy Women in Horror month! February is the month to celebrate the women in the horror genre from the actors to the writers to the special effects to the producers etc. And it's also the month to donate blood and save some lives! And today is Galentine's Day where you celebrate the loves of your life who are your female friends. Last night I watched The Descent with one of my Galentine's and it was super fun.
Full disclosure - I've seen The Descent about 8 times. It's one of my favorite horror films. But I've never actually talked about it on this blog and it's a great one to showcase for Galentine's Day because of its all female cast, (seriously...there's like one guy in this film). Ceara, my Galentine, had never seen it so it was fun to watch with her and watch her freak out.
THE DESCENT (2005)
I'm an English teacher, not fucking Tomb Raider.
The movie begins with a horrific accident that kills Sarah's husband and child. A year after the accident a group of her girlfriends and herself head off to the Appalachian Mountains to do a little cave diving and to help Sarah start to move on. Juno, who was there the day of the accident, Beth, Sam, Rebecca and Holly join Sarah and the group head off to the cave to explore. Juno is taking the lead. As the group gets further into the cave, a passage collapses leaving them stuck. Juno admits that the cave system she told them they were in isn't the truth. She's led them into an un-mapped cave system so that they could discover it as a group. Obviously the group loses their shit over this info but are determined to find another exit. As they travel through they begin to find some strange things like left over mining gear and some wall paintings. And Sarah believes she is seeing people in the distance.
But what they uncover is something so terrifying and evil that the group quickly find themselves running for their lives inside of a cave system that may not have an exit.
Overall?
The first time I saw this movie I was terrified out of my mind. It was the perfect setting - a group of friends, drinking, and watching the movie late at night. The "crawlers" scared me so badly I had to sleep in a bed with my friend because I didn't want to be alone. But since then I've grown a thicker skin when watching horror movies and now just appreciate it for an amazing, claustrophobic, jarring horror film.
The Descent is a British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. It was filmed at Pinewood studios and all the caves were made on set. The crawlers were based on Nosferatu and were kept separate from the actors until their first scene together to create real fear shown on screen.
This film is claustrophobic. You watch as the girls crawl through tiny cave systems and occasionally get stuck. The film plays on the darkness and will keep the screen black while focusing on a small tunnel or a giant empty space, leaving you to fear what will fill those spaces. The compositions make the atmosphere pure dread.
The Crawlers are kept mostly in the background for most of the film, leaving you freaking out until they're finally shown in full force. The makeup and practical effects are spot on and you're never taken out of the story. The gore is intense but necessary. Speaking of the Crawlers, I really appreciate that we're not spoon fed the origin story of these creatures. We're given enough little clues to really use our imagination and come to our own conclusions. Were there men and women trapped under this mountain back in the old days during a mining exploration? Perhaps over the hundreds of years they've evolved into these blind, violent creatures. Or have these Crawlers always lived beneath the mountain, feeding from above?
The relationships between all the women are really well handled. Sarah and Juno have some tension between them and as the story moves on you gain more and more understanding of what kind of person Juno really is. Spoiler alert; she's the fucking worst. Sarah's development is fascinating as she starts out being this timid, depressed woman and turns into the strongest of the group, facing violence head on and doing anything to survive. All of the women feel realistic and the decisions that are made and the conversations all feel incredibly real.
This is a well handled movie that is honestly straight up terrifying. Even after seeing it so many times, it still freaks me out in some spots. The first time you see a full Crawler through the video camera is something that sticks with me. And when Sarah emerges from the pool of blood ala Carrie....just amazing.
Go watch this movie if you never have because it is really a gift. The sequel I've only seen once but kind of want to re-watch tonight. I remember it making the ending of the first one that much better?
Stay Spooky!
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