(Movies) "The Descent"

Its weird. I woke up yesterday morning and went straight to ironing the wrinkles out of a pair of pants I was going to wear. For some reason, while I was ironing, I started thinking about "Alien vs. Predator," and then "Freddy vs. Jason." I remember how lame "Freddy vs. Jason" was, but then I started thinking about how much Freddy and Jason both scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. With that thought floating about, I became a bit saddened by the fact that I am now an adult and would probably never be scared by a movie ever again. You see, for the longest time I have been adamant about my ability to walk away from a scary movie completely unscathed. I have worn this trait around as a point of pride.

No more.

In some ironic turn of events, I ended up seeing "The Descent" last night, you know, just for the heck of it. I can honestly, truly, say that this is by far the best horror film I have ever seen. Be sure to make the distinction there. While movies like "Boogeyman" or the upcoming "Pulse" will bill themselves in the horror genre, the majority of the films will rely heavily on scare tactics (pop out and scare you) and very little on actual horrific sequences.

"The Descent" is a film that is truly horrifying.

The movie starts fairly quickly. We meet a group of adventure-seeking women who meet up in the Apalachian Mountains to do some cave-exploring. Okay, so its a bit unlikely, but this is not as important as what happens once they are inside the cave. From the very beginning, the cave has a very chilling aura about it (One of the women even places her fingers in what appear to be claw marks in the rock). Despite the eeriness of the cave, itself, the women press on, squeezing through tight passages and enjoying all that the cave system has to offer. However, a collapse of rocks soon makes their exit plan unattainable. To survive, they must work together to find another way out of the cave. However, as they progress, they run across somthing that is truly horrifying, something living in the depths of the cave system. Together, they must help one another, fend off the terrifying creatures, and make it out of the cave alive.

By itself, the plot seems a little lame. But take my word for it, this movie is anything but lame. The setting of the cave is truly brilliant. With each new corridor that they enter, things get more and more frightening, and people with claustrophobia will undoubtedly be tense as can be watching these women barely make it through these tight cave systems. In addition, the creatures in the cave, though fictional (hopefully), are some of the most terrifying incarnations to ever grace the screen. The comparisons to "Alien" that were featured in the trailer are spot on here. There's a truly alien-like nature to these creatures, and they offer a much more terrifying experience than ghosts ("The Sixth Sense"), dead women crawling on the ground ("The Grudge"), imbred hillbillies ("Wrong Turn"), or flying witch-a-mahoosets ("Darkness Falls"). These creatures are horrific!

If you are like me, by then end of the movie, you will be so disturbed that you will contemplate not sleeping, you will be utterly amazed by how frightened you truly were, and swear off caves for the rest of your life. Though there are some scare tactics in the movie, there are much more frightening things going on here that are sure to get under your skin and stay for long after the movie closes. I never thought I'd like a horror movie so much, but this is truly a brilliant piece of terrifying cinema.

Recommended for fans of "Alien" and for anyone wanting to be scared out of their mind!

Directing: 5 out of 5 Stars
Acting: 4 out of 5 Stars
Writing: 4 out of 5 Stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 Stars