The Descent: Part 2 ...??!!

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Horrorphile - May 2009

THE DESCENT: PART 2 ...??!!

May 10th 2009 23:51

What a blatantly ill-conceived excuse for a movie: The Descent: Part 2 (2009). If you haven’t seen Neil Marshall’s The Descent (2005), then read no further: big-time spoiler alert!

The Descent is one of the scariest, most intense horror movies of the past ten years. There haven’t been many horrors in the past decade that have genuinely impressed me, and left a lasting impression. The Descent was one and Ils (2006) was another.

Now the five producers of the original, including Marshall, have decided to continue the plight of Sarah (Shauna MacDonald), with Jon Harris (editor of the first movie) in the director’s chair and three new screenwriters. Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) also returns.

But it gets worse. Whereas the original UK version finished with Sarah hallucinating that she had escaped the cave and made it back to the car, but saw an apparition of Juno (presumed dead and devoured) beside her in the car. This shock brought her back to reality and she realizes she’s still in the cave with the creatures closing in; terrifying ending, superbly nightmarish.

Perhaps the sequel is just a bad dream

However, U.S. distributors decided it was all too grim, so they re-edited the movie to finish with Sarah’s hallucination being a reality, so that she has managed to escape, and thus we have a more upbeat ending supposedly more suited to the wider, and more conservative, American demographic. Sometimes the American marketing school of thought does my head in!

The Descent: Part 2 Natalie Jackson Mendoza

Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) has been slumming it underground it seems ...

For The Descent: Part 2 the producers have decided to take the lead from the American edit, and so the movie begins with Sarah having survived and escaped the subterranean horrors and is hospitalized. Authorities come to the conclusion that Sara is at least partly responsible for the disappearance of her friends and colleagues. But, they also determine that there may be some kind of psychopath dwelling underground.

So, Sara is coerced into returning to the cave with a rescue team to search for other possible survivors. What a brave, brave girl. And, as it turns out, Juno is alive! Wow, so those nasty creatures didn’t actually eat her, what a curious surprise. However those carnivorous albino freaks are definitely hungry.

... and partying with the bad boys

All of this is revealed in the trailer. I can only shake my head in grand disappointment. What was a brilliant executed, claustrophobic “Boo!” machine, has now been tainted by a totally unnecessary sequel. There are no genuine surprises here since we know the creatures are down there so it’s simply a matter of watching as the humans get picked off in a series of gruesome attacks.

From the trailer the special effects make-up looks impressive, but the plotting and direction looks pedestrian. Marshall obviously thinks a sequel will put some of the money he lost on Doomsday (2008) back in his pocket, what a sell-out. The movie premiered in Brazil last month, no release dates yet for the rest of the world.

Here’s the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: bait

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Comments

11 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

May 11th 2009 02:02

Damn
I was looking forward to a sequel.
I enjoyed the first film a lot.

Yet I always scratch my head at the logic of taking the sole survivor of a disaster back to the scene of the disaster. (Hang on, that was Aliens.)
I hope they have a better excuse this time than 'she is our subject matter expert because she has seen one of those devils.'

I am hoping that it does deliver on the jump and scare meter.

Comment by Morgan Bell

May 11th 2009 02:22

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The Descent was scary until they actually started showing the creatures, and then it just turned ridiculous . . . although i agree that the end was quite nightmarish, i was so relieved when she finally got back to her car and then it just started all over again . . . awful torment

it seems like they are trying to tease out the idea that there never were any creatures and that Sara killed all her friends because she was hallucinating due to post traumatic strength . . . that could be interesting

Comment by Bryn

May 11th 2009 07:43

Horrorphile

Damo, "m not holding my breath.

Morgan, yeah, but how good was that first half!!! No doubt I'll be seeing the movie, but I'm disappointed that they're trying to milk the damn thing.

Comment by Morgan Bell

May 11th 2009 07:47

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the first half was great, and im terribly afraid of heights so all the scenes where they were hanging from the roof and the pins were coming out or they were losing their grip really freaked me out

Comment by Bryn

May 11th 2009 07:58

Horrorphile

I was just really impressed at how it really felt like the filmmakers had shot the whole thing in a real cave. The sense of claustrophobia was truly palpable! Amazing to think it was all sets.

Comment by Matt Shea

May 11th 2009 08:42

20/20 Filmsight

Bryn - I totally agree. I would expect more from Neil Marshall. This is particularly disappointing for me as, like Morgan, I think the first half of the first film is much better than the second. Dog Soldiers is still my fav Marshall film - love that flick.

Comment by Someone

May 11th 2009 08:57

Evil Pleasures
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Let's Get Down To Business

I loved the ending of the first movie... I don't suppose you've seen 1408?

Comment by JohnDoe

May 11th 2009 18:41

Film & TV on DVD

Hi Bryn,

It's stuff like this that makes me want to go on a bloody rampage of carnage against the industrial movie making machine...the original is a near perfect exercise in claustrophobic nocturnal terror...like Matt Dog Soldiers is my fave of marshall's work...what happened with Doomsday did he just give up?

Comment by Bryn

May 12th 2009 02:31

Horrorphile

JD, I think he tried an experiment that failed with Doomsday.

Comment by CreepyCrawler

June 15th 2009 11:59

I always thought the UK ending of the first movie could have gone both ways - either Sarah didn't get out, or she did get out but went mad because of her guilt over Juno. So in the end, even though she is out of the cave, in her mind she's still trapped there with the one candle. They were pretty ambiguous about it. I guess 2 is going from the US version where they made it clear she got out.

I loved the first movie and liked the fact that it was all women as well. I didn't think the second half of the movie was that bad - I liked that they were all mates in the beginning but as soon as the creatures turned up they descended into a Treasure of the Sierra Madre type scenario where they all looked out for number one.

Looking forward to seeing No. 2 thought - hope it isn't a big No. 2 ...

Comment by Bryn

June 15th 2009 23:38

Horrorphile

Creepy ... cheers for the comments. I'm not holding out hope to be honest ...

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