The Decent

[HLS]

I heard that the Descent was pretty decent. LMAO! But truthfully is there any originality left in horror movies anymore?

[MinionZombie]

Bassman, dude, The Descent is not another "teen horror flick" like those movies, it's much more grown up and wasn't made to cash in on a fad or sell itself above it's own belt *cough* Hostel ... goriest, most violent movie ever MY PAPER WHITE ARSE! *cough* and Saw 2 was just cashing in on the first one in a really cheap, Hollywood way. The Descent is definately not at all like that, seriously dude, check it out. Just ignore what people are saying here, I thought the movie was great fun (and not at all teeny boppish), heck, I have the double disc DVD in my collection. It scared the bejesus outta me. Just go and see it, don't expect anything (which should be a standard movie-going act anyway, preconceptions ruin any movie no matter what it is) and trust me, it's a good flick.

[Adrenochrome]

As far as "The Descent" goes.....I haven't seen it(probably never will - unless it's on TV) but from the advertisements and such.....it seems just like another teen horror flick like "Hostel" or "Saw II"... It's just another "jumper" for the simple minded movie goer.

[Danny]

Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that you don't like "Alien", or just comparing the similarities between the two? As far as "The Descent" goes.....I haven't seen it(probably never will - unless it's on TV) but from the advertisements and such.....it seems just like another teen horror flick like "Hostel" or "Saw II"... just compareing. oh adn hells yeah hostel was ****e and saw II was just as white trash mtv style horror as its predictable by the minute predecessor. in fact in film studies the profesoor showed us that film and said "here the example of a bad movie".

[MinionZombie]

Yes, Saw 2 sucked willy wonka, but Saw was a cool flick - helped by the fact it came from leftfield and surprised a lot of people. Saw 2 was ghey because the money men insisted on a sequel wrapped up from start to finished inside a year to cash in. Hostel was 50 minutes or dull plot and then about 30 minutes of below par violence, and that eye thing was just stupid. Sure, a Daily Mail reader would vomit at the sight of the movie, but a hardcore gore fiend should have been honking up too, but we weren't, so it failed big style. Bassman - for the love of gawd, ignore everyone here (except me, natch ), and go see the movie!

[Trancelikestate]

Hostel was 50 minutes or dull plot and then about 30 minutes of below par violence, and that eye thing was just stupid. You mean the eggyokes coming out of the eye?

[MinionZombie]

The whole eye "thing" was just daft, it didn't look right, and the fact he has to cut off her eye at the stalk/nerve bit is just overdone and not worked into the flow of the movie at all well ... and the puss flying out seemed a bit daft too, surely it would have been a torrent of blood? It just looked so very fake, didn't look realistic to me ... not that I've seen many people with eyes hanging out, but it just didn't look right somehow...

[Danny]

Yes, Saw 2 sucked willy wonka, i just had a disturbing image in my head involving a puppet and a man in a top hat *shudders*

[Chakobsa]

I watched hostel last week and I have to say that it smoked the pole bigtime. It's a stupid, mean spirited hamfisted pile of poo and Eli Roth is obviously not as clever as he would like us all to belive. As is often the case in no brainer movies like this, aimed as it obviously is at an undemanding teen audience, I didn't like any of the characters, I was glad when the annoying twats got what was coming and it's this failiure to generate any empathy with the characters that's often the Achilles heel of movies like this.

[HLS]

I watched hostel last week and I have to say that it smoked the pole bigtime. It's a stupid, mean spirited hamfisted pile of poo and Eli Roth is obviously not as clever as he would like us all to belive. As is often the case in no brainer movies like this, aimed as it obviously is at an undemanding teen audience, I didn't like any of the characters, I was glad when the annoying twats got what was coming and it's this failiure to generate any empathy with the characters that's often the Achilles heel of movies like this. One thing about The descent I did not like is this   they apparently traveled miles threw the caves to escape and I find it quite odd how the other entrance just happens to be right by their cars, where they parked at the beginning of the movie thus making the survivor getaway all too flawless. I mean what are the chances?

[MinionZombie]

Ah, but, she didn't actually get away - it was a dream - so wherever the exit was, it is still technically plausible as they would have lost all sense of their position to the above-ground layout, she didn't actually escape, at least, not by the end of the movie...perhaps in the story (rather than the plot) she escaped, but who knows...

[BUTCHYPIE]

I really enjoyed this film. These are some of the best-written female protagonists, I can remember in a horror film. If you think about it, the creatures are very zombie like: they creep, they eat, they keep on coming. I highly recommend that all the folks stateside check-out the slightly different edit on the U.K. release. Although there is still some ambiguity in the ending, but for me, this ending solidified the ending down to two possible realities. S * P * O * I * L * E * R Having seen the U.K. and U.S. endings, I think Sarah DID escape the cave, but is now trapped in a psychotic break. If you notice, there are bones, when she passes out right before the escape sequence, and then runs towards the light. When she "re-awakens" the second time, there are no bones. She and the torch are in the same position. She wakes up the second time, sees her daughter with the birthday cake and is crying, when we go to credits. The audio over this scene is the creatures coming towards her, followed by a short scream, which sounds like Sarah, as we go into the credits. I believe she was hallucinating this entire scene with her daughter, after imagining Juno in the passenger seat. The scream we hear is the creatures finishing with Juno and attacking her inside her hallucination -- a symbol of her insanity. Now, I see an entirely second possibility, but I'm not sure I can defend it well: I think Sarah may have killed all of her friends. She's the only one who hears the creatures in the beginning. She has the panic attack, when she gets stuck, and then starts seeing these things, that no one else sees at first. Suddenly, they're getting killed, and other people supposedly see them as well. (She also hears the childish laughter, which is probably an auditory hallucination, although it could be the child creature we see near the mother creature). If Sarah was the murderer, it would better explain the Carrie-like blood splatter all over her. I don't buy the "blood pool" as the bones were all stripped clean and blood doesn't stay liquid and bright red like that. You don't see any fresh carrion after the moose on the topside... I know she kicked some creature butt, but she went into the pool after most of the fighting.... Anyway, just thought I'd note my impressions. Not a terrifying movie, but psychologically interesting and tortorous for the claustorphobic, apparently. I recommend it! Low budget, no A-List stars -- this is what I want from the movie industry. Smarter scripts with more clever execution! -

[MikePizzoff]

I just saw it and.... Ehhhhhhhh...... I can't describe how I feel about it. I guess I feel unsatisfied and kind of disappointed. Perhaps I have to think about it for a couple days. There was just so much stuff that I thought was "corny".

[dmbfanintn]

SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!! I rented the Descent last night and really enjoyed the flick, good old fashioned horror. I did not think it was bubble gum MTV at all. Here are the two things I wanted to posts: One, how many references to classic horror films did you guys catch? I saw 4: 1. The scene where she was covered in blood was straight outta Carrie! 2. The scene where the creature was all up in her face, straight outta Alien! 3. The feeding scene, to me anyway, looked to be an homage to Romero’s feeding zombie scenes. 4. The hand popping outta the ground at the end when she found the exit, straight outta the Evil Dead! One of the above posters said something about Sarah being the killer and there were no monsters. I tend to agree with that, I was going to post it but you beat me to it. Here is some more supporting evidence. Other than the very first appearance on the creature (When Holly broke her leg) and all of the girls were present, there wasn’t another time in the movie that had Sarah and a creature in the presence of the other girls at the same time. Anytime she was with the girls there were no creatures, when a creature was present, there was no Sarah. Also, toward the end, when the three girls were trying to get out and Sarah was behind them, she stands up and lets out a scream, but when we cut back to the other three, the scream THEY hear is that of a creature. I do not feel as though this theory was intentional on the writers part, but is a plausible theory. In addition, remember before they went to the cave, she took her head drugs and then the camera dwelled on the pill bottle for a moment, obviously to make the fact that she is on head drugs, stick in our minds. She kept hallucinating her daughter, even with audible hallucinations of child laughter. Why didn’t she tell her friends about the bloody claw prints when they first went down? It is a far fetched theory, I know, but entirely possible. Perhaps the entire movie takes place in her imagination, AFTER she has killed them all, while she is in her state, right at the end. After she climbs out of the cave and drives away, suddenly she is back in the cave, with no way out, and (as pointed out earlier) there is no longer a pile of bones to climb. Maybe that was her way of rationalizing what had happened. I think the entire movie took place in her mind, while she was sitting there, and it closed with the idea that she did not make it out in reality, but she did in her mind. Cray-Zay man!

[MikePizzoff]

Excellent points. Good analysis.