May ?? - The Descent

 

            Despite growing up in Appalachia, a part of the country with some prime nature, I was very much an indoor kid growing up. And while I do enjoy a rigorous hike, I’m still not much for the edgier side of the outdoors. So I watched the first act of The Descent with a little bit of envy. These ladies are all so competent and strong and badass; how come I never got into this stuff. Then I watched the rest of this movie happy to never leave the comfort of my couch ever again.

            The Descent is one of those horror movies with an outsized reputation. While it’s not as widely known as more recent indie horror splashes like Midsommar or The Witch, amongst horror fans it is a classic of the era. And so I went into The Descent with a sense of what I was getting into – a movie that’s scary and nihilistic with strong characters and a bummer of an ending. And it delivers on every promise so very well.

            The Descent, like The Changeling and The Final Girls (and Inside and The Babadook and) opens with a tragedy – protagonist’s Sarah’s husband and daughter are killed in a freak car accident. A year later, Sarah and her friends gather in North Carolina to go caving. Led by outspoken Juno, the group of six head into a cave that’s supposed to be easy-peasy, especially for experienced outdoorswomen like them, but something’s wrong. Many things are wrong.

            The pacing on this movie is extraordinary. The terror ratches up gradually as the movie progresses. Things start to go bad, then they go worse, then way worse, and just when you think things can’t get any worse, the cave’s inhabitants show up. It’s a brilliant premise, combining the tension of a monster movie with the claustrophobia of its cave setting, but good premise alone can’t make a good movie (as the similar The Cave, released the same year to tepid reviews, will tell you). The Descent has six compelling characters with developed relationships to one another; that the audience comes to care for these women makes the story all the more devastating. The violence is unsparing and the action scenes, while often hard to follow, are effectively disorienting. My palms were literally sweating for much of this movie. And the jump scares, holy shit. And the character design. This movie nails everything it needs to to be scary as hell.

            It’s also elevated by a strong emotional arc. Like The Changeling, which I watched out of order a few days ago, The Descent revolves around Sarah coming to terms with grief. The Changeling sees the protagonist have a sense to right a wrong, counteracting his powerlessness in the face of his family’s death. Here, the violence and terror of the circumstance force the grieving Sarah to come back to life. Visually, the movie treats her story as a sort of rebirth, as Sarah grows from quiet and withdrawn to ruthless badass, justifying her reputation as a brilliant final girl. The movie’s gutpunch climax also hinges on her complicated relationship with her best friend, Juno. I think either of these arcs would have made for a compelling story and maybe just because I’ve seen so many films recently that pull the car-accident-opening but I’m feeling a little tragic-backstory-fatigue. Part of me wonders what this movie would have looked like if it had focused its emotions on Sarah and Juno, without the baggage of Sarah’s grief. But then the iconic shot of Sarah rising out of the grime wouldn’t have the power that it does. I’m torn.

            Even in horror, a good scare is hard to find (or maybe I’m just callused at this point in my horror-watching-career). This is one of only a small handful of movies in this lineup that truly rattled me, and for that it’s worth a recommendation alone. But of those truly scare movies, this is the only one where I felt like the characterization and emotional arc held together, where I actually cared about the suffering people on my TV screen. If you’re looking for a fright that doesn’t sacrifice a good story, you can do no better than The Descent.

Vibecheck: Dimly lit and grimy unless it’s blood-and-filth red or glow-in-the-dark green.

Scare Factor: In terms of in-the-moment scares, this is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.

Pairs Well With: Despite its critical acclaim and status as one of the best, arguably THE best, horror movie of the 2000s, The Descent didn’t spawn a parade of imitators. It didn’t start a trend of all-female casts, spark a revival of the monster movie, or inspire an explosion of movies about outdoor experiences gone wrong. So the stuff it reminds me of are all over the place. In its use of violence to facilitate a character rebirth, it reminds me of Inside. In its imagery, it’s as close to Evil Dead’s iconic poster as I’ve ever seen (sorry remake). Other images, and its unrelenting sense of dread and nihilism, make it clear how much the filmmakers were inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. If you want more a-day-in-nature-gone-wrong stories there’s always The Blair Witch Project, and Annihilation also features a hypercompetent all-female cast.

But how gay is it?: Despite the focus on female friendship and Holly’s gay haircut, The Descent keeps things het and platonic. Sarah and Juno clash over a lot of things, and a man is very much one of them. When the ladies swap tales of their romantic conquests it’s fellas all around. Which is to say, weirdly not gay at all.

Girlfriend’s Corner: Nope! (The director is obviously an egg, is my only comment on this film.)