Movie Review - The Descent

The Descent
Directed by Neil Marshall

Awhile back, on Friday the 13th, we fittingly decided to watch a scary movie. We ended up picking this one, and were very pleased. I'm not one to usually enjoy scary movies, but this one was very different than most I've seen. It was more of a thriller than it was horror.

The cool thing about this movie: it actually has some substance to the plot. It involves a nice family, then adultery, a car accident, mistrust with friends... and creepy freaky underground-dwelling creatures too. And we all know that those ingredients always combine for great movies.

There is a group of female friends who seem to be life-long friends and one of them got into a car accident, killing her husband and child. This group of girls decides to go off on an adventure into underground caves somewhere in the eastern U.S., in order to help the new widow experience excitement in life again. Well, you can imagine what happens when a large group of women get stuck underground with each other, the widow finds out that one of her friends was having an affair with her late husband, and there are creepy alien creatures down there too! Yes, that’s right. This movie is awesome.

One of the reasons it's so entertaining and fascinating to me is seeing the dynamic between women fighting with other women, and at the same time fighting alien creatures. Wouldn't it make sense that the ladies should come together, even with their mistrust issues with each other, just to get out of the caves without being eaten? Well I certainly think so. But that doesn't happen.

Their hostility towards each other ends up being their demise. It seems to me that happens much too often in relationships... our anger and unforgiving hearts get in the way of relationships that would likely benefit us if we came to resolution.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Image from Rottentomatoes.com