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THE DESCENT
Directed & Written by: Neil Marshall.
Produced by: Christian Colson.
Director of Photography: Sam McCurdy.
Edited by: Jon Harris.
Music by: David Julyan.
Released by: Lionsgate.
Country of Origin: UK. 99 min. Rated: R.
With: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone, MyAnna Buring, Oliver Milburn & Molly Kayll.

The first half of this late-summer Lionsgate release follows the company’s 2004 psychological thriller Open Water. Here, the scene of terror moves inland. Six athletic women exploring a cave system buried within the Appalachian Mountains find themselves without a map or guidebook, and discover they are not alone. Their misadventure becomes a diabolical theme park ride, The Dark at the Bottom of the Pit.

The six women are resourceful in the mode of James Cameron’s heroines – Linda Hamilton, not Kate Winslet: levelheaded even at times of tremendous stress, physically strong and agile enough to jump across crevices. With shades of Aliens’ Ripley, freckled-faced blond Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), still grieving from a horrific personal tragedy, metamorphoses into an avenging killing machine. Only three of the women really stand out as more than a type, but curiously the less screen time a character has doesn’t necessarily portend an early demise.

Although friends, there’s a splinter within this underground cistern sisterhood. At the center of this fault line is a fight over a man. (Do women always have to compete with one another?) However, director Neil Marshall withholds the cat fights or any sniping and economically doles out clues regarding a possible betrayal. The undercurrent tension between Sarah and her erstwhile friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza), the ringleader of the expedition, is just one of several taut plotlines.

Like most Lionsgate thrillers, this one has a tight running time, with two shocking moments (one I didn’t see coming) and a few other well-placed startles (cue the bats). By far, the first half is the most effective as the outing goes from bad to disastrous: Sarah gets trapped in a tunnel (“Just keep breathing!”), and the rest are lost – this film is not for the claustrophobic.

Marshall could have mined even more scares out of the initial set-up without the lurking creatures emerging from the background. The second half turns into typical cannibalistic mayhem with all the blood and gore CGI can squirt out. But unlike the more nuanced Open Water with its intense scrutiny of two scuba divers stranded in shark-infested waters, The Descent’s focus fractures into many chase sequences. For stretches of time, the actors are literally lost in the dark. Kent Turner
August 4, 2006