The Descent was a rare breed of horror movie, a film that had you watching from behind your fingers as a group of unwitting female climbers faced an unimaginable terror. It boasted a fantastic script, ferocious action sequences and contained an ending that rivalled Terry Gilliam’s Brazil for brazen nihilism. The Descent Part 2 is an unnecessary sequel to Neil Marshall’s wonderfully atmospheric original.
This sequel picks up where the American version of The Descent left off (sans nihilistic ending which was deemed ‘too dark’ for American audiences, they received an obligatory ‘more upbeat’ ending). Found on the side of the road in a bloodied, frenzied state, Sarah (MacDonald) becomes the prime suspect as police investigate what happened to the rest of her climbing group. Under intense pressure from the media to quickly locate the missing climbers, the local sheriff decides that all Shauna needs to recover from her sudden bout of amnesia is to return to the scene of the crime.
As the police, rescue teams and Shauna all head back to the mountains. It quickly becomes apparent that something wicked resides deep within and that they need to escape before they become the dinner menu.
What follows is a stoic retread of the original film as the poorly-realised characters become nothing more than human fodder for the creatures living within. The frequent, innovative death-scenes add some padding to the wafer-thin plot but it can’t help mask the descent (no pun intended) into parody as a twist is revealed within it’s final act, and all narrative logic is thrown out of the window. The Descent Part 2 brings nothing new to the table, and certainly nothing that hasn’t been seen before.
The Descent Part 2 is a paint-by-numbers horror sequel that’s going to struggle outside the rental market. It feels generic and tired, and only exists to display some canny gore-filled SFX. The characters and script all feel peripheral to the cannibalistic tendencies of the creatures, which more often than not take centre stage. In shifting the focus away from the characters and more towards the creatures, the film lacks an emotional hook to sink your claws into. For all the severed limbs and entrails on show, there really isn’t anything to see here.
Jonny Dawson
