The Descent
The Descent
Score: 8/10
I honestly can not remember the last time a movie truly scared me. I’m not trying to be macho here or anything, but movies usually just don’t scare me beyond the occasional scene that makes you jump. Movies like 28 Weeks Later were good, but nothing really scared you about the zombies or left haunting images in your head. You just thought, those were some creepy scenes and went about the rest of your day.
The Descent is not a movie you can just forget about after it is done. I’d heard from a friend that it was one of the scariest movies he’d seen in a long while and after finally seeing it myself, I back his claims up completely. The root of its scariness is the constant dark and ever-growing claustrophobia felt as they get deeper into a cave system no one has ever explored. A good 45 minutes goes by before any creatures are seen at all, and those initial scenes of them lost in the caves could have worked on their own and still ended up a pretty scary movie.
But once they start panicking and yelling at each other after realizing they are completely lost and are two miles from the surface, that’s when things start to get the scariest. All yelling stops when rocks fall from the top corner of the open area they’re in and they all go silent. The first sighting of one of the creatures is probably the scariest moment in a horror film I’ve experienced in a long time. From there the group of six girls become separated and the director takes that as his cue to scare the living crap out of the viewer non-stop until the credits roll.
If for some reason you find yourself wanting to watch a really scary movie that will undoubtedly keep you from sleeping well that night, then The Descent is the movie for you. I get the privilege of going to sleep tonight in my room which is in our basement, so you can imagine how well I’ll be sleeping tonight. The next time you’re with a group of friends, or better yet your girlfriend or boyfriend, tell them that Kevin recommended this scary movie and let me know what you think of it. Now, I’m going to watch some Office episodes to get my mind off of thinking about cave dwelling creatures lurking in the shadows.
