The Descent
UK 2005. Director: Neil Marshall
Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder

Neil Marshall's follow-up to Dog Soldiers pretty much follows the same path. A group of people trapped in the wilderness surrounded by an unknown species that are out to kill them. But while the first movie had a gang of British soldiers trapped in a cabin fighting wolves, The Descent centers around six girls exploring an unknown cave system. The cave collapses and they're all trapped deep underground. And they're not alone.

What I liked about The Descent is that the sometimes inappropriate humor of Dog Soldiers is nowhere to be found here. This is dark claustrophobia from start to finish and there's nowhere to hide. It's almost as if the monsters aren't needed, the pitch black surroundings alone are scary enough. Director Marshall knows that and also takes good time to establish the characters and the premise before releasing any monster whatsoever. It may sound irksome but it's these first 55 minutes that makes the last 30 so effective. Because when the monsters, the crawlers, finally are unleashed they sure comes with a bang so great one is litterally thrown backwards. Meanwhile the girls tries hard to fight back but it's not easy being in a dark cave fighting guys who has lived down there for hundreds of years and the group must put their trust upon ass-kicking leader and Lara Croft-lookalike Juno (Natalie Mendoza), the one who insisted upon these caves in the first place, and Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) who is essentially a nutcase. Rather bad odds which all leads up to an incredibly bloody finale.

The Descent is not a perfect movie, it doesn't need to be. But it's a perfect and deeply satisfying shocker, successfully achieving its number one goal: to scare the crap out of its audience. Though it's a bit rash to call Neil Marshall for the next Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson, he probably isn't, but he has the same sense for creative lowbudget filmmaking as they had with their respective first movies, but with the welcome bonus of having a much better hand with characters and story. The Descent is raw and scary shit for sure but it also has the characters and the performances to catapult it way above its competition. It's clearly the best shocker of recent years and a must-see.