The Descent: Part 2

The Descent broke a lot of new ground in the horror genre. It was unusual and refreshing to watch a horror film without any male characters at all. This worked in its favour, with an ensemble of characters who interacted in a far less predictable way than we have come to expect. There was no jock, no geek etc (at least not in a conventional way) and as a result, the film felt new and pleasingly original.

Fans of the first film will say a sequel is unnecessary and some might even say impossible, depending on whether they saw the US or UK version and their contrasting endings. Nonetheless, we join the action shortly after the first film. A search and rescue party has been dispatched to finding the missing group of cave explorers. They enlist the help of Sarah Carter (played by Shauna Macdonald), who has miraculously escaped from the caves. At this point, the audience is politely asked to set aside any sense of realism and simply accept the fact that a severely traumatised woman, still so distraught that she is unable to speak, is being led back down into the caves less than a day after her original shock. My opinion on that, for what it’s worth, is that it is better to let that thought go, sit back and enjoy the impending terror.

We move deeper into the caves, it gets darker and darker and the rescue party discovers more about the fate of the original expedition.

From this point, we essentially experience a reworking of the original film, but with new characters and a different dynamic (we have a few men for a start, which inevitably leads to a touch more posturing and a dab or two of sexual tension). The successful formula is faithfully recreated: Darkness plus tight spaces plus the nasty crawlers equals some powerful stuff.

The Descent: Part 2 is far from perfect. It takes a few liberties with the plot from Part 1 and squeezes in one or two characters with a suspiciously large shoehorn. Director Jon Harris, making his directorial debut (he was the editor on The Descent) seems to be caught somewhere between creating a carbon copy of the first film and creating a completely new vision. He achieves the first part of this with a good deal of success but struggles more with the second.

The sense of claustrophobia and fear is still present and this makes up for a questionable script and a touch of dodgy acting. There are no real surprises and it is not as strong as The Descent, but it will still get your pulse racing and you will find yourself squirming in your seat forgetting to breathe. And let’s face it, as horror fans, that’s all we really want isn’t it?

Mike Salisbury