The Descent: Difference between revisions

The Descent
The Descent
Directed by	Neil Marshall
Written by	Neil Marshall
Produced by	Christian Colson
Starring	Shauna Macdonald; Natalie Mendoza; MyAnna Buring; Nora Jane Noone; Alex Reid; Saskia Mulder
Cinematography	Sam McCurdy
Edited by	Jon Harris
Music by	David Julyan
Distributed by	Pathé Distribution; Lions Gate Films
Release dates	July 8, 2005 (UK); August 4, 2006 (USA)
Running time	99 min
Country	UK
Language	English
Budget	~ £3,500,000
Box office	£57,029,609

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The Descent is a 2005 British horror film, written and directed by Neil Marshall. The story concerns a group of friends on a caving expedition only to find themselves trapped and hunted by inhuman creatures.

The Descent was released on July 8, 2005, having premiered at the Dawn Horror Film Festival on July 6, 2005. It has received a cinematic release in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Canada and the United States. The movie was both a commercial and critical success, with box office receipts from the UK alone totalling over £2.6 million and a total North American gross of approximately $26 million. The Descent received very positive reviews from many critics and a sequel is currently being planned.^[1]^[2]

Plot

After rafting, Sarah's (Shauna Macdonald) husband and daughter are killed in a car crash. A year later she and her friend, Beth (Alex Reid), are invited to the Appalachian Mountains by their mutual friend, Juno (Natalie Mendoza). At a cabin, they join up with Juno, Holly (Nora-Jane Noone), and two sisters, Sam (MyAnna Buring) and Rebecca (Saskia Mulder). As they reminisce over an old photo, Sarah is prompted to say "Love each day" explaining that it was a saying of her late husband's.

File:The Descent group photo.jpg

A group photo, from left to right: Holly, Sam, Rebecca, Juno, Sarah & Beth.

They drive to the caves and begin exploring. When a tunnel collapses behind them, it is revealed that Juno brought them to an unexplored cave system in a misguided effort to reunite the group. As they try to find a way out, Holly breaks her leg in a fall. As the others assist her, Sarah wanders off and sees a pale humanoid drinking from a puddle of stagnant water. It disappears into the darkness when it senses her. Sarah tells the others, but they dismiss it as a hallucination.

The creatures attack the group, and target the injured Holly. While the others scatter, Juno fights with one of the creatures over Holly, who is still alive. Juno kills it, but another creature drags Holly away, and Juno accidentally stabs Beth through the throat. Beth grabs Juno's necklace as she falls to the ground, and Juno runs away. She eventually finds Sam and Rebecca, and kills another creature. They examine it, and theorise that the creatures hunt by sound, because they are completely blind. Sarah, who hallucinates about her dead daughter at several points, comes across Beth, who is mortally wounded. Beth gives Sarah Juno's necklace, which bears the inscription "Love Each Day", and reveals that Juno was having an affair with Sarah's late husband. At her request, Sarah euthanises Beth.

Sam and Rebecca are both killed by the creatures, but Juno manages to escape. Sarah finds Juno, who lies to her about Beth's death. The two make their way onwards only to find a group of creatures between them and a possible exit. A fight ensues, and the women kill the creatures. Sarah then shows the necklace to Juno, revealing that she knows about the affair. She cripples Juno, leaving her to be presumably killed by the creatures. Fleeing, Sarah falls down a shaft, and is knocked unconscious. She dreams of finding the exit to the caves and escaping. The sight of a bloodied Juno startles Sarah from her dream. She awakens, still in the cave, hallucinating that her daughter is there with her. The creatures' screams are heard as the film ends.

Release

Alternate ending

The Descent was released in North America with approximately a minute cut from the end. Sarah escapes the cave and sees Juno, but the film does not cut back to the cave.

In the August 4, 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was stated that the ending was trimmed because viewers didn't like its "überhopeless finale". Lionsgate marketing chief Tim Palen said, "It's a visceral ride, and by the time you get to the ending you're drained. [Director Neil] Marshall had a number of endings in mind when he shot the film, so he was open [to making a switch]." Marshall compared the change to the ending of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, saying "Just because she gets away, does that make it a happy ending?"

The North American Unrated DVD includes the original ending. Recently, the film has been airing on Canada's The Movie Network, which has the original ending.

Reception

The Descent opened on 329 screens in the UK and received limited releases in other European countries, eventually earning more than £6 million in box office receipts. It has received many positive reviews in the UK and the USA, with 106 out of 128 critics on Rotten Tomatoes giving positive reviews, resulting in an 83% freshness rating. On its debut weekend in the US, The Descent opened with a three-day gross of $8.8 million, and finished with $26,005,908. Total worldwide box office receipts are $57,029,609 million.

Roger Ebert's editor, Jim Emerson, reviewed the film for Ebert's column when Ebert went out for surgery. He gave the film four out of four stars. He wrote, "This is the fresh, exciting summer movie I've been wanting for months. Or for years, it seems."

Filming

Although the movie appears to have been filmed in an actual cave, it was actually filmed using elaborate sets, miniatures, and blue screen digital images.

Pathé, the company behind the film, deliberately released the film early, forcing it to appear in theatres before another caving themed horror film titled The Cave. According to director Neil Marshall, this was "just to try and beat The Cave to the punch, piss on their chips a bit."

The skull of women motif for the title picture is based on Philippe Halsman's In Voluptas Mors photograph.

London Terrorist Bombings

During its prerelease advertising campaign a number of billboard style ads for The Descent were placed on buses throughout London. One of these, the Number 30 bus, was destroyed by a bomb at Tavistock Square during the July 2005 terrorist bombings of London. The bus was carrying a placard for the movie depicting a bloodied Shauna MacDonald staring out of the darkness with quotes from several positive reviews of the film. The half of the placard that remained undamaged after the explosions appeared in a number of famous award-winning photos of the scene by Mario Rosenberg^{[citation needed]}. Part of the quoted review by Total Film magazine that read, "Outright Terror, Bold and Brilliant", was clearly visible in the photographs. Many commentators, including writers for Variety and The Times, remarked on the rather unfortunate coincidence.

Due to these events there was some initial concern that the film's release might have been delayed out of sensitivity for the tragedy but Pathé ultimately chose to release the film on schedule with a slightly retooled advertising campaign; However, the US promotional campaign managed by Lionsgate Films was significantly different from the original European version.

Footnotes

^ "Comic Con '06: Neil Marshall Hints at 'Descent 2'". Bloody-Disgusting.com. 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2006-08-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Butane, Johnny (2006-07-30). "Marshall, Neil (The Descent)". Dread Central. Retrieved 2006-08-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

[1] "Comic Con '06: Neil Marshall Hints at 'Descent 2'". Bloody-Disgusting.com. 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2006-08-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[2] Butane, Johnny (2006-07-30). "Marshall, Neil (The Descent)". Dread Central. Retrieved 2006-08-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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 The skull of women motif for the title picture is based on [[Philippe Halsman]]'s ''In Voluptas Mors'' photograph.
-==''De2cent''==
-OPEN in the Appalachian mountains, just where the original film ended. We hear the voicemail messages of the six girls who went spelunking in the caves there and were never heard from again. A mountain RANGER's voice messages reveals that the girls are missing. Did they forget to call in? Or are they in trouble? CUT TO the rescue team outside the Boreham Caverns: there's DAN, the leader, with GREG, 22, and CATH, 27, working as volunteers. They head down into the caves, noting the dangerous outcroppings and sheer rockfaces. They emerge from the cave with no clues, glowering at Chief Deputy VAINES, who is pressured to get some kind of search party going. But where to start?
-Suddenly, a woman staggers into the window of a roadhouse café, smearing it with blood. This is SARAH, one of the cavers! She collapses and is taken to the hospital, where Vaines and his younger partner, the female RIOS, try to question her. Rios tries the soft touch, but Sarah is clearly traumatized, hearing ‘click' sounds everywhere, fearing for her life ... and unable or unwilling to talk. Believing that Sarah's memory is the key to finding the others, Vaines finally takes over and decides to take Sarah with them into the caves. Her memory will certainly be jogged, and maybe she can help them locate the other lost girls before time runs out.
-Sarah allows herself to be taken to the mines. She sits there, numb, totally shut down. Vaines, Rios, Dan, Greg, and Cath accompany her down in the creaky elevator, where Sarah gets more and more nervous. Realizing where she is going, she finally lashes out, screaming, "Don't go down! There's something down there!" but it's too late - they are halfway down into the caves. Sarah is restrained. They reach the bottom and begin looking for the lost girls as Sarah's fear becomes nearly overwhelming. Rios tries to soothe her, but down in the dark caves, with collapsing ceilings, drips and clicks and echoes everywhere ... it's very creepy. Dan watches Sarah's reaction and regrets allowing Vaines to bring her down.
-Suddenly the group comes upon a horse skeleton on the floor. Claw marks on the walls. Sarah shrinks in fear. They then find a snaplight and boot - from a caver! When Cath shouts out for the girls, Sarah tries to smother her into silence. She admits that there are "creatures" down there. Then they find the body of a girl (REBECCA from the first film). Half of her face is missing; a rat slips out of her mouth. Should Sarah be considered a suspect?
-The radios stop working, and the group is clearly lost. Dan and Cath veer off alone. When Cath is trapped after a ceiling collapse, Dan tries to calm her and promises to return, but he wonders if he'll ever see her again. He comes upon BETH's (from first film) smashed face while several feet away, Rios sees Holly's body, eviscerated. Dan can't believe Sarah would do that, and Rios points out the savageness of the wounds. Sarah dashes off alone into one of the honeycomb tunnels. In the distance, Greg screams. Sarah turns off her flashlight and ducks down, quiet, then traces a drip of water. Then Dan and Rios find the cavers' camcorder, which plays back the scenes of their laughter and fun. The replay shows them entering this very spot of the cave, seeing the animals' bones. Then the shadow of a CRAWLER is visible, and as Rios struggles to rewind it, a Crawler appears right before them, hisses ... and Rios drops the camcorder. As Dan fumbles about the sudden darkness for it, Sarah grabs Rios and covers her mouth just as a
-Crawler appears, sniffing around. Sarah refuses to warn Dan. Dan finds the camera and lifts its
-light just in time to see Sarah holding Rios - and then bam! He is attacked, eaten, but Sarah and Rios are safe as the Crawler drags Dan's body away. Rios is horrified that Sarah just let Dan die, but Sarah won't stay around to be scolded. She takes Dan's left-behind flares, flashlight, maps and tools and heads out. Rios follows, freaked out. CUT TO Cath, still trapped, hearing the sinister clicks, thinking Dan is approaching. But of course it's a Crawler, whom Cath manages to slam in the face with a sharp rock, dislodging the rest of the ceiling. As it falls, the Crawler is killed and Cath escapes before being buried. She scurries down the tunnels and finds herself in a Crawler Catacomb. Cath bumps into Greg. They are relieved to be together.
-Meanwhile Vaines comes upon Dan's body and assumes Sarah killed him. He tries to contact Cath and Greg via the radio, but his message is barely audible. Cath and Greg keep running and come upon SAM's body (from the first film), dangling upside down from a rope, her innards chewed away. The duo is chased by Crawlers; Cath swings at it with her pick but is pulled down, and devoured. Meanwhile Sarah climbs and swims through numerous tunnels and poor Rios, out of her depth, struggles to keep up. Sarah risks her life to save Rios. The two women form a bond as they nearly drown, are decapitated, and chased by Crawlers. They struggle to find a way out. Rios records a last message on her phone for her little daughter while Sarah remembers hers (now dead). They have a narrow escape from a hungry Crawler.
-In another part of the cave, Greg is attacked by two smaller Crawlers but is attacked by its MOTHER and eventually kills himself on his own whirring drill. CUT TO Vaines, who thinks he's being attacked by Crawlers but comes face to face with JUNO - one of the girls lost in the cave! She is filthy, feral, and up for a fight. Vaines still believes Sarah is to blame, and Juno (who remembers killing Beth) is disinclined to change his mind with the facts. But then Vaines catches sight of a Crawler and stares in utter disbelief. Juno kills it. Vaines now blames Sarah for leaving Juno and the others for dead. Juno senses the Crawlers advancing and attacks with her teeth. Then she grabs her pick and is about to strike in another direction when she comes fact to face with ... Sarah. They stare, frozen. Vaines then takes charge and ushers them to find out away. They four (with Rios) are the only ones left.
-Then, as they try to escape, the ground gives way beneath Vaines's feet. The girls realize they have to leave him or be killed themselves, and seeing their choice, Vaines claps handcuffs around his own wrist to Sarah's. When the Crawlers, chewing on the dangling Vaines, threaten to bring down the whole group, they struggle for the keys without success. Finally Juno uses an axe to chop Vaines's arm off at the wrist. He falls, screaming, as the others tread carefully through the caves looking for a possible exit. The find the area, blood-drenched, where the Crawlers eat; there they are, chomping away. The three press on until they see an opening up above. Juno waits below while Sarah and Rios press their backs together and ‘walk' up the side. Sarah throws a rope for Juno, and hauls her up. But Juno is getting mauled from below, and she gives Sarah permission to go after Rios, who has found the cave opening, and safety.
-But Sarah chooses to stay and help Juno fight off the Crawlers. They are about to be overrun by hundreds when they realize they still have Dan's gas detector, signaling a red alert for methane. Using a lighter, the girls ignite a fireball that rushes through the tunnels, killing everything (even them ...?) while Rios, out safely, calls for backup just as a Crawler attacks her, jaws open.
 == London Terrorist Bombings ==