The Descent
Director: Neil Marshall
Grade: B+

Neil Marshall’s The Descent doesn’t add anything new to horror film making but it does intensify the most notable strengths of the genre to forge a film shockingly effective at creating dread and unease.

One aspect of the film particularly engaging is the cinematography. The interplay between light and shadows paradoxically draws out scenes of stunning beauty amid moments of grotesque horror. Take for instance a scene in which one of the characters ascends a pile of human skeletons. Lights pours down from the upper corner of the screen, just skimming the surface of the mountain of bones and cutting a sharp line across the utter blackness that dominates the rest of the frame. A recent viewing of Terrence Malick’s The New World demonstrated moments of similar composition showing just how firm Marshall’s grasp of technique is to compare him to such a master of film form. It’s remarkable instances such as these that separate The Descent from sterile, unimaginative horror films like the recent remake of Pulse in which each image depicts the same flatness and shallow creativity as the next.

But stunning cinematography alone would not be enough to elevate the status of The Descent. One only need look at the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes to illustrate how a surfeit of style and a dearth of substance do not a successful horror film make. And perhaps this also leads to another asset assisting Marshall’s work – unlike many of the recent horror films, The Descent is neither a direct remake of another far superior work, nor a retread of tired material. True, it does reference a number of sources ranging from The Shinning to Alien but it allows these references to flourish within a wholly original structure.

The key word here is patience, an idea far too many horror films overlook. The Descent bides its time establishing believable characters with rich histories. And while not every one of the six women who descend into the film’s inferno emerge as all together likeable; they nevertheless appear as three-dimensional and convincing. When the film does inevitably hit its horrific stride, it remains unrelenting until its chilling conclusion. I won’t deny that the film contains more than a few horribly violent sequences, but (and this may sound quite contradictory) they’re orchestrated in a tasteful manner. Compare it to a film like, for instance, Event Horizon which used its gore merely to nauseate; The Descent, on the other hand, treats it as a natural consequence of its grim situation and doesn’t linger (for the most part) unnecessarily on the fouler moments. The best way I can explain this is to cite the way in which Kill Bill utilized gore in a non-offensive manner.

The Descent certainly isn’t the most phenomenal film of the year, but it is a pleasant surprise. Pity that its ads make an attempt to liken it to such films as Saw or Hostel. This film belongs in a category of its own. For those who resist horror films of all kind, there’s little I can say to convince you of this film’s greatness. For those who, however, remain on the fence, I can assure you it’s well worth the price of admission. But don’t wait too long; I don’t anticipate this will be in theaters much longer. Especially with the upcoming onslaught of over-the-top horror films sweeping through theaters this Halloween, this one’s sure to be buried beneath the box-office receipts of lesser films.