The Descent: Part 2 Review
Dec 11, 2009 by Ross MillerIs The Descent: Part 2 a worthy successor to the critically acclaimed and well-regarded Neil Marshall horror? Read on to find out…
Short Version: For absolute die hard horror fans out there, The Descent: Part 2 may be worth a watch at some point on DVD. For everyone else, I’d say skip this lackluster sequel and settle for renting the brilliant first film instead.
If you’ve been reading Screen Rant for any amount of time, you’re probably aware that I’m a HUGE fan of Neil Marshall’s modern horror masterpiece, The Descent, from back in 2005 (although for some reason it didn’t hit U.S. theaters until Fall 2006). To me, it was the most effective horror film I’d seen in years, and my personal favorite since The Shining (it featured at number 1 on my list of the “Top 5 Movies That Scared the Hell Out of Me”).
It was also a film that I felt wrapped itself up very well, and in no way needed a sequel. But of course whenever a low-budget horror such as it is successful, either critically or financially, you just know they’re going to go the sequel route. Needless to say, I was more than a little annoyed at the news of The Descent: Part 2 being made, particularly because Marshall, the first film’s writer and director, wasn’t coming back to perform the same duties for the second one, only attaching himself to the project on the executive producer level (which we all know is just to get the film noticed more/give it more credibility).
Picking up literally right after Marshall left off is the first film’s editor, Jon Harris, making his directorial debut. The results unfortunately are way below the level of the first film and it’s immediately obvious this isn’t a seasoned director behind the camera. The film is often clumsy, particularly when the action – which there is a fair amount of compared to the first – is happening on-screen. There’s two major elements that the first one had that are nowhere to be seen in this one, but I’ll get to those soon.
(Warning: There will be spoilers in terms of what happened in the first Descent, and also possible mild spoilers for this sequel)
Firstly, let’s get the plot out of the way: As I said, Harris picks up right where Marshall left us all in the last one, with the one remaining member of the cave diving group, Sarah, having escaped the seemingly endless caves (we’ll get to how that may or may not make sense, depending on what version you saw). She is obviously delirious and is picked up by police and sent to hospital.
Unfortunately for Sarah, everyone else outside of the caves only have the information to go on that six women went down into the caves but only one came out, and needless to say Sarah becomes a suspect to the local law enforcement. They finally come to the conclusion that they need to go down to the caves to look for the rest of her party of women, taking Sarah with them as both their “guide” and to keep an eye on her as a suspect. So why does Sarah agree to go back down there, where she faced hell just hours previously? Well, she obviously loses her memory of everything that happened (typical…) and so doesn’t refuse as you’d logically expect.
So with the help of a local man who discovered Sarah panicked on the side of the road, there’s magically another way down to the caves other than where the group of women first entered – a shaft that leads down to some mines that are directly adjacent to the caves. With a new team, including an extra-suspicious police sheriff, Sarah must relive the nightmare she and her friends experienced.
The first of the two elements that helped make The Descent so great was the claustrophobic feeling of the cave setting. For more than half of the first movie we don’t even encounter any of the monsters that the film ends up plagued with, but rather are forced to sit through almost unbearable fear of the darkness and the close proximity of the caves around the women. The tight spaces and endless darkness creeped the hell out of me the first time around, but the new director here just isn’t able to capture the same kind of dread without resorting to blood and gore.
Speaking of which, there are bucket loads of more blood this time around. Don’t get me wrong, plenty was spilled in a host of nasty ways in the first, but for some odd reason it felt… justified. Here, a lot of the time it’s just gratuitous and bloodily violent for no reason than just to have it in there. Harris’ inexperience as a director (although he’s plenty experienced as an editor) really shows during the scenes of attack from the Crawlers (as the monsters/creatures are known) when the camera is shaky. The film then falls back on hacking away at a skull or arm (take your pick from all body parts) in an attempt to get scares. It, at least for me, rarely worked as intended.
That’s not to say there isn’t some genuinely effective scares to be found here: there were about 3 or 4 times where I legitimately jumped in my seat, mostly down to one of the monsters appearing out of nowhere, accompanied by a loud piece of music. A lot of the time it’s obvious when the jumps are coming, but there were a few times when it worked quite well.
The second element of the first film that is squandered here is the more general fact that it was an all female cast, something that you don’t often see in movies these days, particularly horrors. However, here they add at least a couple of guys to the fold, and although they’re just as “ripe for the picking” as a couple of the other new female characters, I felt it took away a lot, if not all, of the magic of the whole thing in terms of the character dynamics.
To quickly get to whether or not the continuing of the story makes sense or not – that will depend entirely on what version you saw. In the UK, the first film ended with Sarah getting out of the cave only for that to be revealed to be a dream and she’s in fact still down there, getting surrounded by the Crawlers. But the sequel chooses to COMPLETELY ignore that (not even a mention or hint anywhere as far as I could see) and go with the U.S. ending that she did escape in the end. Of course, it was necessary to do that in order to continue the franchise but for someone who saw the UK ending, it’s just confusing.
Lastly, I just want to mention the ending of the film: Of course, I’m not going to give anything away, but suffice it to say that I found the ending to be ridiculous, nonsensical, annoyingly ambiguous (read: get ready for The Decent: Part 3) and that it took away from the overall story of both movies. You may have a different reaction should you choose to see it, but for me it really didn’t work.
Overall The Descent: Part 2 is a major step down from the first film in almost every area, from the amount of scares (a whole truck load in the first to just a handful here) to the effectiveness of the gore and even down to such things as the dialogue (which is sometimes eye-rollingly cheesy) and the predictable characters (suspicious sheriff, naive young officer, eager adventurers and so on). If you liked the first one you’ll maybe get a kick out of seeing the Crawlers doing more of their vicious attacking but generally I’d say skip this one and just go rent the original.
Our Rating:
2 out of 5
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Great review Ross.
What a damn shame though that they had to ruin a great film with a sequel like this. I too saw the UK ending and thought it was not left open for a sequel.
Is it just me or does that Crawler in the the picture look like a super-buff version of a vampire monster from Underworld? What’s up with that? The Crawlers were super skinny, very pale skinned with really big eyes. You know – things that a species would have to evolve over time to adjust and adapt to its surrounding.
I love that the US ending had a happy ending, I didn’t know that until now, do the studios thinks so little of you Americans that you couldn’t handle the proper ending?
Anyway, I’m a huge fan of The Descent, it is a real gem of a horror movie and it still scares me each time I watch it. I will be giving this sequel a miss, there is Avatar and Sherlock Holmes still to come this year.
i hated the 1st one, it wasnt all that scary and was well predictably stupid. the version i hired was supposed to have both versions but only had the UK one.
on the topic of cheesy and typical endings has anyone seen left for dead ?
Ok the descent and the cave are the same movie with different people and different monsters. It is a meh movie. Dog Soldiers is his best work.
how can you see the first one was good? it was the biggest bunch of bollocks i have ever had the misfortune of sitting through… i felt that i lost intelligence after watching it
My wife and I are die hard horror fans. That is all things horror, and, I have to admit, I do love a good bit of cheese as well. That said, I would agree that the Descent was possibly one of the best horror movies made in recent years ([rec] would be up there as well) and I was curious when I heard there would be a sequel, but, I knew I would be disappointed. I’ll watch it on netflix though.
Hopefully we won’t get a sequel to Dog Soldiers. That was a spectacular movie as well. Good call Sin.
@SamBeckett:
“I love that the US ending had a happy ending”
While it is true that said character got out, I would hardly call it ‘a happy ending’.
******now on with the rest of it********
I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t use the UK ending to springboard the film, hey…would it be so much to ask if :
1- The original UK ending was a nightmare and she wakes up in the hospital (think of it like the ending of the original Friday The 13th, where the survivor has a nightmare of young Jason springing out of the lake, and wakes up…)
Don’t like that? Well, okay…how ’bout
2- Have her find a way out, then she can lose her memory and…
What? Don’t like that either? Okay, let’s try…
3- She does something that causes the Crawlers to scatter away from her. She then finds a way out and…
NO! They don’t even try that!
4- EVERYONE IS DEAD> So the old standby ‘In name only’ (This makes sense-rescue party goes in…)
But No…..
NO>>>>>>>
Yo
How’s that Dog Soldiers 2 comin’?
Any word?
NO????
How can anyone do anything but shake their head in disgust at this movie?! Does anyone bother reading books anymore? This movie is supposedly (and I emphasize “supposedly”) based on the book by Jeff Long, which is a masterpiece. This movie is just a sub-B rate horror flick that took a beautifully written story and turned it into 90 minutes of garbage.
Dog Soldiers rocked!
It may not live up to the first movie, but it will still be better than most of the horror movies popping out in the box office here in the US. Nothing though can really compare with the first one, it was brilliant.
While I’m a fan of the original Descent movie as well, you should all know its a fairly blatant ripoff of the novel, THE DESCENT (it was NOT an authorized adaptation of the novel) and it watches more like a prologue to the novel which gets into detail about what the creatures are (Hadals), where they came from, and what they’re after. Again, I enjoyed the first Descent movie a lot, but the novel will get in your head. The sequel, DEEPER, is also fantastic. If you enjoyed the movie, you will absolutely love the novel.
– Jeremy Robinson, author of PULSE and INSTINCT.
Vic-
Don’t you have sumthin to keep people like stephanie from spamming?
Anyways, for me the biggest thing that gave me the creeps in the first one was how it was shot with the claustrophobic feel to it. Without that in the second, I’ll wait for rental night on this one.
@dannyboy
They’ve been flagged as spam. Don’t know how they got through.
Vic
Wait just a minute; she loses her memory, yet they use her to help get through the caves? What part of “SHE LOST HER MEMORY” did they not understand?
I thought The Descent was pretty good; not great, but good. I wish I could have seen then UK version because I don’t know how she could have gotten out.
@DrSamBeckett
Your prejudice comments aside, the US version was NOT a happy ending. Not at all. Yes she gets away from the crawlers and makes it to her SUV, but it’s at a serious cost. I personally felt the US ending was MORE disturbing than the UK one.
Wondering where you saw this film … overseas? on DVD? Have been waiting for its release and now, thanks to your review, I’ll put my enthusiasm on hold.
The Descent is a terrific film and I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of it. “Dog Soldiers” was a curiosity and a sign that Marshall was a talent to watch, nothing more. The Descent proved his horror chops were for real … but what the hell happened with “Doomsday?”
Find it strange that anyone would write off the original film – one of the best horror films of recent years to my mind.
Shame to hear the sequel isn’t much cop through. And Doomsday was appalling.
The Descent is a classic. This from a man who owns close to every horror film known to man (US and international, old and new). Dog Soldiers was okay… but rather hokey in my opinion. Characters were good. But the production quality, particularly the wolf makeup/costumes, left much to be desired.
As for the Descent Part 2, I haven’t been able to locate it on Amazon. I did have the fortune of reading the screenplay (I’m a screenwriter, so it comes with the territory), and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Looked forward to seeing how they managed to film some of those scenes.
If anyone knows where I can order the DVD online, I’d be eternally grateful.
Ah, Dog Soldiers. possibly one of the best, and more believable werewolf films I have ever seen. I heard they did have plans for a sequel, but it may have been cancelled. God only knows. I would only watch it if they brought back the original director.
Cancelled.
The cops were thinking this:
“If we don't force her into the caves, how will we ever get to star in a sequel-OH MY GOD THE CREATURES ARE EATING ME!”
Or something to that effect.
Ah, Dog Soldiers. possibly one of the best, and more believable werewolf films I have ever seen. I heard they did have plans for a sequel, but it may have been cancelled. God only knows. I would only watch it if they brought back the original director.
Cancelled.
The cops were thinking this:
“If we don't force her into the caves, how will we ever get to star in a sequel-OH MY GOD THE CREATURES ARE EATING ME!”
Or something to that effect.
I hate the fact that everyone hates this film! I personally thought the Descent part 2 was as good as the first one. I hope they make a Descent part 3 and a forth film set as a prequel.
I totally agree. I loved the first one and when the second came out, I got it asap and I love that one as well. I thought the casting for both films was excellent. Normally I can’t stand ‘getting to know the characters’ too much but these were different for me. Especially the second one. I am really hoping for a part 3. When Greg grabs the crawler woman, there should still be water below and though his neck looked totally messed up, you never know. I also thought because Rios was attempting to use the phone (and surely it fell when that nut hit her with the shovel) it may have connected somehow or at least left it open for a trace and it could continue that way. In any event, I love both movies and all the actors and Dog Soldiers is outstanding – no doubt. It sucked how all those cool guys died but at least Cooper lived so maybe a part 2?? I’m hoping for that as well.
And i really hope they make more dog soliders films,
Ending was horrible. ): It scared me, but the first one is better.
The Descent 3 is filming already!! YAY!
Really?? I have just started looking on line and hoping they were going to put out a third one. Personally I love BOTH the first and second movies. I find the acting excellent and the environment terrifying. I can’t get enough of these. So I really hope 3 comes out soon!!