Written and Directed by: Neil Marshall

BBD Comments:

MOFO and Bob just stopped by, so I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Man, did I hate ‘Night of the Demon.’ Thats the last I’ll say about it.

First off, congrats to Slim for making it a year with the Crew. We’re better for having you here, and your constant support, insight and manual labor throughout the Dark Times will never be forgotten.

Rena was great and I’m sure I speak for everyone saying she’s welcome any time she cares to join us.

I had a hard time getting absorbed by this film. I think the car accident at the beginning was so upsetting that I was knocked out of the story as the “one year later” set-up was established. By the time the second act began, some of the simpler aspects of the story were eluding me faster than you can say “that dude healing in the church was ‘Yojimbo’?”

When I finally put the simple pieces of the story back together I enjoyed the claustrophobia that this film generates so well. Yes, the film made me jump in my seat with some magnificent scares but by the end I felt some pieces (and maybe brain cells) missing. For all of the wonderful set-up (as I stated earlier, the car wreck is masterfully effective) the film devolves into a slasher flick. I typically hate reviews that bring up “what ifs?” about the film, but what if we never knew wether those beasties were real? What if each of the women’s stories were fleshed out so that the bulk of them didn’t seem there merely to die? The problem with such questions is a movie can only be what it is, not what it makes you wish it was.

My problems with ‘The Descent’ is I was left with such questions... it never turned into the film I hoped it would be. As long as I am using reviewer tactics I tend to frown upon, I’ll end with my least favorite:

I hoped Slim’s ‘The Descent’ would be a magnificent Slam Dunk, but in the end it was only a decent one.

Onwards.

Netti Comments:

‘The Descent’ hit where ‘Night of the Demon’ didn't which was a pool of blood and chicks with fake tits (or at least so perfect that they might as well have been) beating the crap out of some C.H.U.D.s. As far as those criteria were concerned I think that it more than delivered. Next to ‘Rushmore’ I think it was Slim's best Pick.

As far as the movie was concerned, I wonder why so much time was spent on pretty minor character development.  If you can call it that.  I know its horror but the character development was too long and too economical.  A car accident, caused by a distant husband in the first two minutes, sets up an infidelity with a friend of the main character. This is the height of economy. However, its wasted by taking another 45 minutes to get us to the turn. Once the turn hits, its like two different movies. The only thing that really scared me was the claustrophobia at the beginning which was handled with such a deftness that the slasher flick that it becomes just feels cheap. Not that I don't like a good slasher flick, I just wonder where all of that ridiculously spare character development got us, if we were gonna get the robovampire ass kickers in the end anyway.  Regardless, it was less character development and more like fronted backstory. It left me no feeling for the character whatsoever.

But in the end a Pick that scratched that Halloween itch.  Nicely done.

Nubs Comments:

With his new friend cheering him on from the bleachers, Wildcard threw down a monstrous dunk the pick before Halloween.  ‘The Descent,’ which had not been seen by any in our entire audience, served Movienight in many ways. Those of us sitting next to him, heard Tooda who was unusually confused this night, more than usually intoxicated from his World series pre-show, and about as usually loud say that it was Wildcard’s best Pick to date.

Now as is my usual modus operandi, I will first praise the pick and discuss briefly how it was the perfect choice and then I will spend great length picking it apart for all it’s faults even though I did like it…really. First off, I love that it’s an all female cast. I shouldn’t say females, I should say “bad-ass, cool, chicks” for it was refreshing to have them basically behave like any band of heros. Early on I kept waiting for one of them to pull out pictures of their kids or bitch about their nails and it never happened. It was like the script was written for a bunch of macho men and they cast women without changing a word. That sounds overly chauvinistic but it seemed purposeful to the film.

Second, but most important, is it was scary as shit. As I have discussed in my ‘Evil Dead 2’ review, I appreciate that they were able to incorporate so many of our most basic, human, fears. From the first scene there was our fear of loved ones killed in a car accident. We also got the fear of tight spaces, the dark, the unknown, monsters, blood, speeding SUVs, fear of heights, medical procedures without painkillers, ghostly children, and my fear of groups of women who are all stronger than me. There were so many great scares that, like a lot of great horror films, my adrenaline had my hopes up for the movie to surpass it’s limiting genre and become a great film.

For this to happen the filmmakers would have to sacrifice some of their tricks and focus on storytelling and theme. I agree with Netti that in a way ‘The Descent’ does such a great job selling us on people trapped in the depths of the earth, that when we add the monster/spelunker/golems storyline as well as the affair/competing friends plot we feel cheated. Maybe it was the timeliness of the truly horrific miner tragedy in Utah, or I was impressed by the Blair Witch filmmaking they were able to take to the next level, but they had all of us good. Then they kept all of their original half-baked storylines without allowing one to fully rise.

This leads to my other gripe; choose a fucking ending. We watch the whole movie wondering if she will ever see daylight again or become cannibal buffet and they show us both scenarios without any definitive answer? Bullshit. Speaking of “her”, what’s the point of long, slow character development when everybody is indistinguishable with helmets, dirt, blood, similar body-types, and, oh-yeah, overwhelming darkness! I’ve been accused of sounding like a racist before by confusing the teenagers in ‘Battle Royale,’ and the bunnies in ‘Watership Down,’ but with infrared cameras on screaming women weighed down by gear and gore, I lost interest in differentiating characters and storylines.

Right, so great pick, Brandon! You scared the daylights out of me and introduced me to a gem I would have never scratched beneath the surface to discover.  Puns and cursing aside, it was great night under a blazing tongue-in-cheek moon worthy of Wednesday night, October 24th.

SELECTOR Comments:

After reading the heated debate from last week’s ‘Night of the Demon’ between Netti and Tooda, I knew I had to deliver some serious gore and terror on the screen. The Crew demanded to have the shit scared out of them, and I felt obliged to deliver on that demand.

 

Normally, I don’t like to show extremely modern films on the Canvas (‘Rushmore,’ ‘Romeo is Bleeding’ and ‘Dazed and Confused’ are all from the early and mid-90s…a decade in the world of cinema is a lifetime.) But after lucking into ‘The Descent’ at a video store last year, I knew this film was about as solid a “Halloween-gore-blood-scare-you-shitless” Pick as they come, as well as one that I don’t think many people had seen. And there was one scene in particular, when the cave-dwelling creature first appears in the monitor of the handheld camera, I was hoping would have the desired effect on the Crew…and it did: Every attendee that night jumped in their seats in unison, and right then I knew my Halloween Selection was going to deliver on at least scaring some people. 

 

Sure, ‘The Descent’ jumped plots midway through, or perhaps you could call it a severe character set-up that comprises the first 55 minutes of the film, but I think it all really helps to illustrate how real people would react to not only being trapped and lost two miles below ground, but also being hunted by grotesque human-like creatures that thrive on human entrails. There were no heroes in this film; no swashbuckling demon-killers using kung-fu to fight their way to freedom. In fact, our lead protagonist actually becomes worse than the creatures themselves—they only kill to eat and to protect their home—but she deliberately wounds one of her “best friends” after finding out that she had had an affair with her husband and then accidentally killed another “best friend.” Aside from all this plot and character study, the most important thing that I tried to accomplish by showing this film was to scare the piss out of people the week before Halloween. I hope I delivered on that.         

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