Review of ‘The Descent’ 1 and 2

I’ll start of by admitting a bias – I think ‘The Descent’ might be the best horror film I’ve ever seen.

The premise isn’t different from a lot of horror flicks – get a group of people together, and have them picked off one by one.  Where ‘The Descent’ differs, though, is in that the tension is maintained throughout, and the claustrophobia of a previously undiscovered cave system comes over brilliantly. 

The six characters are out of their depth as they have to battle their unfamiliar, tight environment as well as the monsters.  It’s this extra dimension as well as the skilled pacing that place this film among the best.

I give ‘The Descent’ 10/10.  It’s that good.

Like a lot of sequels, ‘The Descent Part 2’ suffers from being a sequel.  There’s nothing much wrong with it as a film, but the premise is the same – explorers underground in an uncharted cave system.  The monsters are familiar by now, so lose a little of their scariness.  This left little scope for anything new, so the gore and general ‘yuk’ factor has been upped at the expense of original plot.

If the first film hadn’t been made I reckon we’d all be drooling over the sequel (does that make sense?).  Anyone seeing ‘The Descent Part 2’ first is likely to be impressed, and because of that I’ll give it 8/10.

Roll on ‘The Descent Part 3’!