I've written more than once about my occasional journeys into the realm of international horror movies. These "journeys" have taken me to Japan, Spain, Canada, Australia, and England, with more than a few great scary movies coming from these countries. One of them was Neil Marshall's The Descent, a fantastic flick about of a group of thrillseekers who get trapped in a cave system in the Appalachian Mountains with a pack of man-eating creatures. I loved The Descent when I first saw it, and it still holds up upon multiple viewings.
So when it was announced that there would be a sequel to The Descent, I got excited. But unfortunately, it ended up going direct-to-video in the United States and totally flew under the radar. I even forgot it had been released here at all until I got it in the mail from Netflix a few days ago. But here we are, so let's see if it's anywhere as good as its predecessor.
The movie picks up not long after where the first one left off, as Sarah Carter (Shauna Macdonald) has managed to escape from the uncharted caves that claimed the lives of her friends. She wakes up in the hospital two days later with no memory what happened and no reason why she was found covered in her friends' blood. Hoping to jog her memory and find some other survivors, Sheriff Vaines (Gavin O'Herlihy) demands that Sarah accompany him and a rescue team into the caves. This, obviously, is a very bad idea. It isn't long before they too are preyed upon by the bloodthirsty monsters that call the caves home.
The Descent: Part 2 is a far different movie than the first one. The original Descent focused more on atmosphere and suspense, while the sequel goes a more violent route. One could say the movie is to the first Descent what James Cameron's Aliens was to Ridley Scott's Alien. The Descent: Part 2 is more violent and more graphic than the original, but I sadly cannot say that it's as good. That's a real shame too, because I went in hoping for the best. That's not to say it's a bad movie, but it could have been a lot better.
The thing that hurts the movie most of all is its script. Written by James Watkins, J. Blakeson, and James McCarthy, the script is really lacking. The characters are forgettable and undeveloped, the plot is nonexistent, and a thought-dead character from the first movie shows up at the one-hour mark just so they can have a greater connection to the first movie. That has to be why the character was brought back, because I don't remember any loose ends from the movie that needed to be tied. They don't even handle the character's return that well, with any sort of drama or pathos that could be drawn from it is poorly done.
I also thought the movie's ending was total bullcrap. I try to avoid totally giving away endings, so I'm not going to spoil this one. But I can and will tell you that this movie's ending sucks. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. You know how some people get pissy over the twist ending of High Tension? I'm like that in regards to the twist ending of The Descent: Part 2. The twist comes absolutely out of nowhere, with no setup or clues at all. At least you could think of ways to justify High Tension's twist that make sense. But the only way I could justify this movie's twist is by assuming they wanted to do something as a hook for The Descent: Part 3. It's stupid and annoying and practically ruins the whole movie.
I was only a wee bit disappointed with the cast. With no character development and the fact that the movie is pretty much a body count flick, I got the feeling that the cast decided to not bother at all. Most of the actors are forgettable, but they're playing anonymous cannon fodder, so I guess it's understandable. The only people in the movie who stand out are Shauna Macdonald, Gavan O'Herlihy, and Krysten Cummings, and they aren't really memorable for good reasons. Cummings is annoying and O'Herlihy is just plain bad, while Macdonald's performance would have been a lot better had more of the movie been spent examining how her character had been traumatized. If the movie had adopted a psychological aspect, it could have made for one hell of a movie. But that doesn't happen, and Macdonald's performance is a little dull as a result. She makes a decent enough effort, but it sadly isn't enough.
Last on my list is the direction, courtesy of first-time filmmaker Jon Harris. And maybe it's just me, but I thought the movie looked comparable to one of those Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies, only with better effects. The movie just doesn't feel like they're actually stuck in a real cave. I mean, it sure seemed a lot less dark than a real cave would be. Where was all that extra light coming from? I guess it doesn't matter, that it could be included under the banner of "suspension of disbelief," but it makes me curious. And it doesn't help that it makes everything look like a cheap set, too. I also wasn't a fan of the jittery camerawork and quick editing Harris employed during the action scenes. I hate that crap in general, and the movie didn't need it at all.
But that's not to say that the direction is all bad. While I was a little bummed that Harris chose to employ nothing but jump scares instead of building suspense or terror, some of the jump scenes are actually pretty effective. Harris even ties one into one of the original Descent's best scares via a camcorder belonging to a character from the first movie. And you know what? It works.
But the problem with The Descent: Part 2 is just how unnecessary it feels. Was this a movie that absolutely needed to be made? If it was, then it could have been done a lot better. As it stands, the movie is simply adequate at best. It's okay, I guess, but I'd really rather just stick with the first movie and pretend the sequel didn't exist. I didn't think it was a bad movie at all; I just thought it was disappointing. And I hate to say that, too.
Final Rating: **½
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