Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Don't Go Down There

Actually, Lion's Gate films' latest bit of horror - The Descent - isn't a bad film. It's one of those B movies that works well enough to a point, and is in may respects intelligently written, scripted and performed, though elements become a little silly in the thick of the action about three quarters of the way through. It's still an enjoyable bit of horror adventure and additionally interesting because aside from a supporting character in the first few minutes of the film it's an all-female cast.

For a few reasons I took Friday off from work. I'd put in quite enough time earlier in the week, including being there until 9pm the day before, and I'm trying to more conscientiously burn off vacation time via a Friday here or a Monday there so I don't have an unrealistic bundle as year's end approaches. I got some errands done early and decided to catch the first showing at a local theater, choosing this movie largely on a whim despie my still not getting out to see a couple on my list of prospective films, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and Lady In the Water. (And until I typed that and considered it against the backdrop of this movie I hadn't realized how estrogen-soaked the current movie scene was.)

Concept: A group of five friends (plus a sixth one brought in by one of them) in their mid-twenties reunite a year after one of them suffers a tragic loss, resuming their history of adventurous outings by going spelunking. A tunnel collapse leaves them with no way of getting out the way they came, and they soon find they're not alone.

A very physical adventure, it's interesting to consider the character dynamics as an all-female group. Not very long ago the most we could have expected was that one or two females would have been mixed into the group, one or both some sort of bad-ass expert. In this case, though, with only one gender things loosen up and we find characters that are almost completely written as women, but there's no sense that there's one or more men missing from the group dynamic.

Late in the film Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) emerges more fully as the central character and I'm still trying to decide if it's an experiment in overlaying her with male movie elements and behaviors (think of Arnold Schwartzeneggar's character Dutch in Predator when he's covered in mud and at his most manic) that partially fails because of her presentation of them, their being in a way innately silly (and only standing out because they're being mimicked by someone we wouldn't expect them from) or this is mostly my provincialism getting in the way. All I can say is that at least one time during this - when Sarah, covered in blood from an underground pool and, in part, from two of the human-like creatures she's just killed in self defense, throws back her head and roars - it seemed less a primal response and more a forced one. Roar of pain, loss and frustration? War cry? It's likely intended as both, but it just didn't quite reach me. That by this point she's managed to construct one of those magical movie torches that burns with a clean, steady flame and never goes out doesn't help the believability of this section of the film either.

The cave shots and spelunking action are engaging, not that I'd want to be down there doing any of that. The disorienting landscape was enhanced by the camera angles selected, repeatedly stressing the audience's ability to tell up from down. In terms of a setting this one pretty much had all of the elements to push one's particular fear buttons. Claustrophobia's a given, but as they deal with gaps in the cave that present them with huge cliffs it's enough to test the audience for acrophobia, too.

The special effects - most notably a stream of bats early in the cave experience and multiple creatures swarming into a section of the cave strood out bady as animated to the point of looking like cartoons.

The race of blind, albino, feral (yet with an obvious social structure), bat-like creatures are creepy, but I wish a little more attention had been paid in a couple of scenes. Most grievious was a scene where the filmmakers must have been thinking torch = light, creatures are blind, so the torch isn't an element. None of this explains how a naked, cave-dwelling creature would walk within a foot of a burning torch and fail to notice the intense heat. Their sonar was somewhat spotty, too, judging by when they did and didn't detect someone standing in the cave.

While there's slime, saliva and blood aplenty dripping, savage attacks and grisly death handed out by both sides in the conflict, and even one compound fracture along the way, I was actually pleased that they showed as much restraint as they did in trying to gross out the audience.

The ending of the film is either one of those cheap scares a filmmaker throws out when he realizes the story's told and has gone a few beats beyond the most interesting thing, or it's intended to set up a question in the audience's mind as to whether or not we actually saw what really happened in the end, or if we slipped into Sarah's nightmares again and perhaps the previous few minutes were all in her head a la An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, lacking only in us not being savagely returned to reality?

Emerging from the theater a little past 1pm on a very sunny Friday, I seemed to have much more difficulty adapting to the sunlight than Sarah did.