Director: Neil Marshall
Cast: Shaunna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone
Plot: When a group of adventure seeking girlfriends go caving in an unexplored region they get more than they bargained for, uncovering a new species of cave dwelling creature perfectly adapted for the dark. That’ll teach ‘em for leaving the safety of the kitchen.
Horror Highlights: The Crawlers are one of horror’s most innovative monsters of the past 20 years and a truly fantastic conception. Neither a ridiculous mystical/mythical creature nor some hench retarded kid in a hockey mask, the Crawlers are an evolutionary-sensical animal that has remained undiscovered until now. The claustrophobic and pitch blackness of the caves draws upon a primal fear within us all and is a perfect setting for tense horror.
Best Scare: The Crawlers’ first appearance is a master class in creating the perfect horror moment – understated and realistic; one of our protagonists is searching for a way out, starring into the gloomy distance when suddenly she catches a fleeting glimpse of a strange man-creature. Spine-tingling stuff.
In the first few years of the new millennium Brit director Neil Marshall created a new paradigm of horror movies with DOG SOLDIERS (2002) and THE DESCENT (2005), one which promised to break horror free from the teen-slasher funk it ha been stuck in since SCREAM went ker-ching in 1996. Sadly the splat-pack auteur’s output has dwindled into near non-existence since, but THE DESCENT is still a brilliant piece of work that will always remind us of that fleeting moment when horror seemed new and exciting. THE DESCENT’s brilliance lies in its subtlety, misleading the characters and audience at the same pace. The first half is a tense and dread-wrought survival movie trapped in a despairingly bleak scenario and then BOOM! A hoard of cave creatures attacks and the bludgeoning begins.
This is a brave and brutal film that features eye-gouging, pick-axes in necks, protruding bones, mercy killings and lashings of gushing blood and it’s unconventional all-female ensemble cast is refreshing, empowering and makes the gore all the more visceral and shocking. Nothing in this movie feels overt or forced and it’s a natural evolution from start to finish and what a finish! Talk about two fingers up to the conventional Hollywood happy ending.
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