This is not going to be available to a greater audience in Germany anyway, so I can as well write the review in English. "The Descent" is a plain old horror movie (tm). So most of the fundamental laws of horror movies are to be followed. Among them are: If you commit adultery you are dead, the improvised torch burns an eternity, the one realizing the danger first is not to be believed, the bad things are extremely dangerous and extremely stupid at the same time.
Another fundamental law is: The majority of victims is female. This one is a sure thing for the movie as the (human) cast is basically all female. There is a fragment of a story, too. Six adventurous young and quite well-built ladies (Note: No dead teenagers here!) explore a cave in the middle of nowhere. After moving through a claustrophobic tunnel said tunnel collapses in the most dramatic moment. Trying to find their way out they slowly realize they are not alone.
The movie manages to build up suspense at just the right pace. It also slowly replaces high tension situations out of almost real life with the usual X files stuff. Be warned, however, that our heroines (well, the ones still alive) in the end quite literally walk through blood and gore. This is not the usual how gross and we laughed a lot stuff, this is the real thing. I at least got drawn into it and felt like biting my fingernails quite a few times. A few of the scenes go beyond the splatter effects and introduce psychological stress situations.
The director manages to make the most out of story and setting. The film is very well produced, the lighting at a few times is great. Most of the times, however, there is way too much ambient light for the cave setting. I really enjoyed the climbing scenes, but some of the fighting is cut very hectically.
If you are into this kind of thing, "The Descent" definitely is a must-see. It wont make the average movie goer happy! The last horror movie I saw was the Americanised "The Ring". This one is different and not as sublime and multi-layered as "The Ring". All in all a straight-forward but good horror movie.
Punkte: 7 von 10
Herausragendes Product Placement: Peak Performance (bloodstained)