The Descent Part 2 – The beasts below are back!
Spelunking is defined as the hobby or practice of exploring caves; any additional scraps with ungodly creatures from the pits of hell are not usually included with said pastime.
That is, of course, unless you happen to fancy a trip down the holes under the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.
The original Descent saw director Neil Marshall produce a tense British horror that generated widespread acclaim. Whilst this film was indeed scary, well shot and a lot of fun, it has to be said that Neil Marshall’s ability to write dialogue for women is somewhat akin to a dog’s ability to play hopscotch.
Considering that the whole cast was female, this was a bit of a problem; however, The Descent was not a dialogue-driven piece, and thus it escaped unscathed and turned out to be a very enjoyable movie.
We were excited about the prospect of a follow-up (although what we really wanted was a sequel to Marshall’s awesome directorial debut Dog Soldiers). The end of The Descent saw Shauna MacDonald’s sole surviving character, Sarah, believe that she had escaped the hellish cave, only to wake up realising she was still stuck down there. The deliberately ambiguous ending was brave, and worked well.
The Descent Part 2 picks up immediately after the original, with Sarah successfully negotiating her way out of the cave and into the side of an unsuspecting local’s truck. She is taken to hospital, and questions from the dubious Sheriff Vaines, and his deputy Elen Rios, prove fruitless thanks to Sarah’s memory loss.
Apparently, the locals have been frantically searching for the missing girls, and the emergence of just one cave-diver instead of several raises a few eyebrows. The blood of Sarah’s treacherous friend (and subsequent enemy) Juno, whom she left to die in the cave, is all over her clothes, acting as a catalyst to the sheriff’s suspicions that there has been foul play.
Using a new entrance that has been discovered, the sheriff insists that Sarah join him, his deputy and some specialists in their attempt to locate the missing girls.
What ensues is a beat-by-beat remake of the first movie, with key moments taking place at the same time and in the same way as the predecessor. A great moment of the original came when we finally got to see the monsters for the first time; we are sharing one character’s infrared vision, when she turns to another and we see the frightening creature standing, motionless and silent, right behind her. A great pause follows, before the piercing screams and horrifying melee take over.
The Descent Part 2 completely rehashes this moment, which is thoroughly disappointing, but the general craziness and chaos are entertaining enough. The final third sees a nice twist (although slightly predictable), which turns the situation on its head.
A real issue is the supporting cast; a credulous collection of irritating characters whose subsequent grizzly deaths lose impact as a result of their lifeless, two-dimensional personalities. This is not a fault of the actors (although the performances are not great); blame must lie with the rushed screenplay that does not even attempt to provide back-story or character development for The Descent’s new additions.
Neil Marshall probably thought that a sequel would be a bit tricky, and chose instead to act as a sort of producer, overseeing the project from a safe distance. Newcomer Jon Harris mainly tries to recreate the same atmosphere and visual style implemented by Harris, which was probably the safest option.
Sadly, there is only a nonchalant attempt to provide new shocks and scenarios, but they are still fun nonetheless.
We were a little bemused by the search party that kicked off the film; Juno specifically took the girls to an unexplored cave, and one which was not the agreed destination. It is painfully unlikely that a search party would know where to look, if the girls themselves did not know where they were going,
The new cave entrance that happens to be down an old man’s mine shaft is fairly ridiculous (and a blatant set-up for something else), whilst Sarah’s memory loss is also a little dubious. She single-handedly takes on so many of the beasts in The Descent, and obviously survives down there for several hours. She manages to escape and suddenly remembers nothing. Of course trauma can cause memory loss, but the handling of such an idea is not executed well, and diminishes the film’s credibility.
It seems like a half-hearted attempt to justify Sarah’s return to a cave that no informed individual would want to revisit. James Cameron was infinitely more successful at pulling off the same trick with Ripley’s return to LV-426 in Aliens.
The Descent Part 2 is certainly watchable, and many viewers will probably get some satisfaction from this follow-up, but there is no attempt to cover any new (under)ground which will leave fans of The Descent Part 1 desperate to escape.
Image: Filmofilia
