# (The) Descent was brilliant! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 29, 2007, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577 "2007-12-29T07:21:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DellieM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@DellieM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DellieM)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577/1 "2007-12-29T07:21:00Z")
Too hot to go outside today, so indulged in a movie that’s had me intrigued for a while - “The Descent” about a group of 6 women who go caving. Wow - I bit my tongue, choked on my sandwich, knocked over my wine, yelled, jumped and elbowed the love of my life in the eye. Well … I yelled and jumped a lot. Did any other Dopers think it was a kick-arse scary film? I did pretty much the same thing in 28 Weeks Later - but thought this was better. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577/2 "2007-12-29T07:28:10Z")
Didn’t like it. Thought it would have been better if it had just been about the terror of claustrophobia and darkness. Instead, they used these silly imaginary monsters to inject some unconvincing fear into a situation which was already inherently terrifying; the monsters had a kind of deus ex machina quality for me; unnecessary and unjustified. The director’s prior movie, _Dog Soldiers_, however, I can recommend unreservedly. ---
**Author:** ![friendlessboob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@friendlessboob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friendlessboob)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577/3 "2007-12-29T07:59:24Z")
Completely terrifying movie, you almost wish you weren’t watching it at times. I have seen it a couple times, but first saw it in theater with a friend of mine, both of us have young daughters…needless to say the opening was a punch in the gut. You have excellent acting by women who look like they actually could do the stuff they were doing. You have an amazing combination of sadness, eerie dread, claustrophobia, betrayal, human frailty, horror, terror, fright, empathy for the “monsters”, suspense, revulsion, etc. There are to many facets to list…just a great movie. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577/4 "2007-12-29T09:42:41Z")
I enjoyed the cinematography which was extremely claustrophobic and terrifying but I didn’t care for the very end. I’m okay with the lack of a happy ending even though it’s reached a point with these kinds of films that the happy ending is the surprise twist. I didn’t like getting jerked around with the “She got out… PSYCHE!” bit. If it had been set up with other hallucinations earlier in the movie it might have been more passable but that kind of fake out was just annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577/5 "2007-12-29T14:04:58Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] Didn’t like it. Thought it would have been better if it had just been about the terror of claustrophobia and darkness. Instead, they used these silly imaginary monsters to inject some unconvincing fear into a situation which was already inherently terrifying; the monsters had a kind of deus ex machina quality for me; unnecessary and unjustified. [/QUOTE] I did like it a lot, but I agree that the monsters were not needed and actually made the movie _less scary_. The claustrophobic parts where by far the scariest bits in it. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-descent-was-brilliant/431577/6 "2007-12-29T14:24:45Z")
Agreed. My husband and I thought it was a terrible movie; made so by those ridiculous Gollum ripoffs!