The Descent

Ordinarily I'll wait for almost any movie to come to DVD before I'll watch it, unless it's one of those 'must see' movies, or it's a franchise that I can't wait to see (i.e. Any Texas Chainsaw movie), but sometimes I hear about a movie so much that I break and head into the theatre to check it out. Most of the time I'm horribly disappointed, but once in a while the movie lives up to the hype and even surpasses it. That's exactly how I felt about The Descent!



When I saw them promoting The Descent on The View, I was sure that this was a chick flick dressed up with some of the trappings of horror and fully expected a lot of talk about the women's 'feelings' and a bunch of 'men bashing'. Boy, was I surprised! The Descent is the story of six women who enjoy going on extreme holidays, this time they're chosen spelunking (cave exploring). The problems start happening when a cave in traps them and the leader of the group tells them that the cave they're in, isn't the cave that they planned on exploring, so no one knows where they are, they're on their own getting out! And, while that might be bad enough, there's something in the cave with them!

To say that this is just your standard horror movie is selling The Descent way short! This movie is very believable because the women in it seem real. There's none of your stereotypical horror movie chicks here, there's no 'tomboy', there's no 'guy crazy chick' and there's not a boob to be seen, it's actually quite refreshing to see actresses allowed to bring realistic characters to life without having to 'pop their top' at some point!

The Descent is one of the best horror movies of the year and while I know those words are tossed around a whole lot more than they deserve to be, this time I actually believe it, The Descent is going to be hard to beat! And, I still can't wait for the DVD release, as I'm told that the original 'non-happy' ending will be on it...and after seeing the movie, if that was the 'happy' ending, I can't wait to see what the director considers to be 'unhappy'!!

The Descent gets a solid 4 cigars out of 4 and if it's still in theatres near you, it's something you should certainly check out for yourself! And, until next time, when I'll tell you the story about my friend wanting to take me cave-diving once...it happened just before I went on the beer and donut diet (DAMN! I'd love to go guys, but I'm just too fat to fit down the hole...what a pity.), remember that the best movies are bad movies!