The Descent – 2005 | 99 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The Descent was Neil Marshall’s hotly anticipated follow up to his 2002 cult hit Dog Soldiers. Directed by Marshall from his own script and described by the writer-director as ‘Deliverance goes underground’, the visceral film tells the story of an all female caving expedition that goes terrifyingly wrong. Marshall has a more substantial budget to work with this time round but despite the films undoubted tension and claustrophobia it’s a remarkably clichéd story with unoriginal shock moments and a frustratingly teasing ending no doubt designed to allow for a sequel.

One year after the death of her husband and daughter in a tragic road accident, Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) joins up with five friends in the remote Appalachians mountain range for their annual thrill-seeking adventure, a caving trip into the arteries of the earth. The group makes their way through the remote cave system, enjoying the hazardous but beautiful surroundings. Then, deep inside the cave, disaster strikes when their route back to the surface is blocked by a rockfall. When they learn that Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza), always pushing herself that little bit further, has brought them to an unexplored cave, and that no one is coming to rescue them, the group starts to splinter. But left with no option, they push on through the cave, praying for another exit.