A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
- Awards
- 8 wins & 22 nominations
Stephen Lamb
- Crawler
- (as Steve Lamb)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to the audio commentary on the special edition DVD, there was an exact replica made of Nora-Jane Noone and after the movie was finished, she got to keep the head of the doll. Once, she put it in her mother's freezer as a joke.
- GoofsAll of the spines in the various bone piles throughout the movie have the spines intact and the inter vertebral disks still present in the spines. Inter vertebral disks, however, are cartilage, not bone, and would have decayed (especially given that there is no clothing, hair, or fur in the bone piles, meaning that the bones are quite old). The spine segments should be scattered and in pieces, not in long segments.
- Crazy creditsThe creature's snarling sound can be heard at the end of the credits.
- Alternate versionsSPOILER: The endings of the US and UK versions differ. In the end, Sarah wakes up at the bottom of the cave, crawls out, and makes her way back to the car. When she is driving away, she pulls over and vomits, and when she leans back into the car, she is startled by the ghost of Juno sitting in the passenger seat. The US version cuts to the credits here. In the UK version, this apparition causes Sarah to wake up for real at the bottom of the cave, revealing her escape to be just a dream. She then has a vision of her daughter's birthday cake, which we see is just her torch. The camera backs out, the voices of the creatures can be heard again and are increasing in strength as they are closing in on her, and the movie ends. This ending was considered "too dark" for US audiences.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Descent: Deleted and Extended Scenes (2006)
Featured review
Brilliant
I read an interview with the director Neil Marshall that he had read a review of (the excellent) Dog Soldiers where the reviewer asked "when will a British director make a genuinely scary Horror?".
Gauntlet thrown, the result was the Descent.
I have always liked this movie. It is genuinely scary. It's claustrophobic, atmospheric and extremely well made.
It is also a growing force that asks a different question each time I watch it.
Basic story is a group of friends go caving in an uncharted cave system, get stuck, realise they're not alone and have to fight for survival against a subterranean population of mutated humanoids. It is much, much more that that. Early on the main character suffers unimaginable trauma which hits you hard. The caving trip happens a year later and the groups is still hugely grief stricken (for various reasons) and the trip is an attempt to restore some semblance of the lives they used to know.
The film is about grief.
There are also overtones of female identity. An all female cast, an exploration of what it is to be a mother and a wife and I've even read about the cave system itself being representative of a woman's body. I'm not sure if that's intentional or not but it's interesting.
The film is about womanhood.
What is fantastic about this movie is the ending. It's a little ambiguous and very much open to interpretation. Pretty bleak either way. Theories abound as to what the descent is. A descent into a cave system or a descent into madness. Our final glimpse of Sarah might indicate the latter and that then poses questions about the whole movie.
The film is about madness.
It's a proper horror and a cracking piece of British cinema.
Gauntlet thrown, the result was the Descent.
I have always liked this movie. It is genuinely scary. It's claustrophobic, atmospheric and extremely well made.
It is also a growing force that asks a different question each time I watch it.
Basic story is a group of friends go caving in an uncharted cave system, get stuck, realise they're not alone and have to fight for survival against a subterranean population of mutated humanoids. It is much, much more that that. Early on the main character suffers unimaginable trauma which hits you hard. The caving trip happens a year later and the groups is still hugely grief stricken (for various reasons) and the trip is an attempt to restore some semblance of the lives they used to know.
The film is about grief.
There are also overtones of female identity. An all female cast, an exploration of what it is to be a mother and a wife and I've even read about the cave system itself being representative of a woman's body. I'm not sure if that's intentional or not but it's interesting.
The film is about womanhood.
What is fantastic about this movie is the ending. It's a little ambiguous and very much open to interpretation. Pretty bleak either way. Theories abound as to what the descent is. A descent into a cave system or a descent into madness. Our final glimpse of Sarah might indicate the latter and that then poses questions about the whole movie.
The film is about madness.
It's a proper horror and a cracking piece of British cinema.
helpful•70
- davidwalker-94471
- Jan 25, 2024
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- El descenso
- Filming locations
- Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK(on location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £3,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $26,024,456
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,911,330
- Aug 6, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $57,130,027
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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