ABOUT / PLOT

One year after a brutal accident destroys her family Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and five friends enter an unexplored cave system in the Appalachians in search of adventure and find more than they can possibly cope with!

It quickly becomes clear that Sarah isn’t fully recovered from her mental breakdown and that she’s still plagued by flashbacks and hallucinations. To make matters worse, a rockfall blocks the only way out, so Sarah soon finds herself fighting for her life as well as her sanity. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, she becomes convinced that Something Nasty is down there with them…

SISTER FILM

The Descent has been described as "The Sister Film" too director Neil Marshall's nearly all male "Dog Soldiers". In stark contrast to the male bonding of Dog Soldiers, the heroines of The Descent become every bit as deadly as their savage surroundings.

If it were an American film, at least two of the girls would have taken their tops off, but Marshall is in the vanguard of a new and original brand of British horror filmmaking. His excellent ensemble cast, including Spooks star Shauna MacDonald, shed their humanity rather than their clothes, regressing to a primal state.

MOVIE REFERENCES

Marshall describes his movie as 'Deliverance goes underground', but this feisty thriller owes just as much to the town and country counterpoint of Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes". From the low-angled shots of an "Evil Dead" style woodland cabin, to the iconic poses of "Carrie" (the blood-splattered Macdonald bears more than a passing resemblance to Sissy Spacek), Marshall leads us on a whistlestop tour of all his fan boy favourites. In addition to the movies already mentioned the film includes explicit allusions to "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "28 Days Later" "2001," "The Third Man," "The Fourth Man," "Don't Look Now," "The Blair Witch Project" "Vertigo," and "Apocalypse Now".

SPOILER ALERT!

At roughly 55 minutes in "The Descent has one of cinemas greatest shock moments with the use of the infra red function on a digital camera! It easily ranks with Brian De Palma's "Carrie" Ending, or Spielberg's face attue porthole in "Jaws"!

CHICKS WITH PICKS!

The premise is simple "Six Chicks With Picks!", but its all action (some of which is very brutal! Be warned!) tightly paced and at times extremely gory in a way which makes late period Lucio Fulic seem restrained! In Neil's films, violence is not presented in an attractive way, it looks very, very horrible!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE AND VERY STRONG VIOLENCE!

REVIEWS

"A savage and gripping peice of work that jangles your nerves without leaving your brain hanging." Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com

"I jumped I gasped , I winced, I cringed and for lengthy periods I simply held my breath." Mark Kermode, The Observer

"Plays like Aliens meets Deliverance, with the action bloody brutal and relentless." Andy Jacobs, BBC

“Taut, claustrophobic and Carpenteresque in it's brilliantly timed cattle prod moments."

"Brutal, bloody, terrifying, astonishing." Dan Jolin, Empire Magazine

"Thanks to its skilful director, well-cast actors and talented technical team, this fiercely entertaining British horror movie has blood, guts and brains." Time Out London