by pinback » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:28 pm
Often, while I am walking down the street in the middle of the day in downtown Santa Monica, people will stop me on the street and ask, "Hey Pinback (because I wear a nametag), why was Alien, and to a similar extent, Aliens, so good? Lots of movies have done the scary-monster-in-the-dark thing, with just as good special effects and gore and stuff, what separates them?"
At this point I kindly sign whatever they want me to autograph and move on, explaining that I'd like to discuss this with them, but I simply have to be getting to the pub for my hourly feeding.
Would I to stop and explain, however, I would suggest that what separates these movies and those like them are the fact that by the end, you can name the characters, and can discern each of them from each other not only from their surface personas, but what you think they actually might be like "in real life". Ergo, you feel you sort of know them. Ergo, you sort of care. Ergo, when Hudson gets taken down in the complex on LV-426, you really are bummed! No, not Hudson!
The Descent has no characters nearly as likeable (or quotable) as Hudson. However, the case remains that the six chicks what go down into the hole, you can identify them, and they are written and acted with enough depth that you feel less like you're watching prefab, scripted, dumbed-down nonsense, and more like a documentary. A passing resemblance to Blair Witch is not accidental (and that's a good thing.)
Would that all the movie had to offer (again, see: Blair Witch), it would still be a welcome arrival on the cultural wasteland of stupidity and schlock which is the horror genre. However, the Descent also offers one more pleasure: The cave itself.
Put simply, though there do in fact turn out to be "others" down there ready to make the girls' lives miserable, the main antagonist is the cave itself. And joy of joys, the movie actually handles it with intelligence and respect. At one point (for me the most viscerally memorable of the movie) the gals have to navigate a virtually bottomless crevasse about fifteen feet wide. Other movies might attack this problem with a big crescendo of music and slow-mo desperation jumps. This one is too smart, and opts instead for a meticulous clinic in rock climing and splelunking, with all of the ropes and carabiners and cams and other doohickies which would actually be used to surmount such an obstacle. And it takes its time. Far from bogging the film down, little scenes like this just serve to ratchet up the tension one more notch. And then another, and then another.
The last third features more of the "others", and everything goes straight to hell for our luckless ladies. Thankfully, before the movie can spin too far out into the realm of absurdity, it has the good sense to end. And the ending is just right. If it had ended any other way, I would have been disappointed.
The first blurb I saw about this movie said "as good as Alien!" and I scoffed, for how many movies profess to this level of quality, when in fact they suck as bad as Alien 3?
Turns out, though, they might have a point.
I give The Descent (which I saw on DVD, interestingly enough, since the British version is already available for purchase) four (****) stars.
Often, while I am walking down the street in the middle of the day in downtown Santa Monica, people will stop me on the street and ask, "Hey Pinback (because I wear a nametag), why was Alien, and to a similar extent, Aliens, so good? Lots of movies have done the scary-monster-in-the-dark thing, with just as good special effects and gore and stuff, what separates them?"
At this point I kindly sign whatever they want me to autograph and move on, explaining that I'd like to discuss this with them, but I simply have to be getting to the pub for my hourly feeding.
Would I to stop and explain, however, I would suggest that what separates these movies and those like them are the fact that by the end, you can name the characters, and can discern each of them from each other not only from their surface personas, but what you think they actually might be like "in real life". Ergo, you feel you sort of know them. Ergo, you sort of care. Ergo, when Hudson gets taken down in the complex on LV-426, you really are bummed! No, not Hudson!
The Descent has no characters nearly as likeable (or quotable) as Hudson. However, the case remains that the six chicks what go down into the hole, you can identify them, and they are written and acted with enough depth that you feel less like you're watching prefab, scripted, dumbed-down nonsense, and more like a documentary. A passing resemblance to Blair Witch is not accidental (and that's a good thing.)
Would that all the movie had to offer (again, see: Blair Witch), it would still be a welcome arrival on the cultural wasteland of stupidity and schlock which is the horror genre. However, the Descent also offers one more pleasure: The cave itself.
Put simply, though there do in fact turn out to be "others" down there ready to make the girls' lives miserable, the main antagonist is the cave itself. And joy of joys, the movie actually handles it with intelligence and respect. At one point (for me the most viscerally memorable of the movie) the gals have to navigate a virtually bottomless crevasse about fifteen feet wide. Other movies might attack this problem with a big crescendo of music and slow-mo desperation jumps. This one is too smart, and opts instead for a meticulous clinic in rock climing and splelunking, with all of the ropes and carabiners and cams and other doohickies which would actually be used to surmount such an obstacle. And it takes its time. Far from bogging the film down, little scenes like this just serve to ratchet up the tension one more notch. And then another, and then another.
The last third features more of the "others", and everything goes straight to hell for our luckless ladies. Thankfully, before the movie can spin too far out into the realm of absurdity, it has the good sense to end. And the ending is just right. If it had ended any other way, I would have been disappointed.
The first blurb I saw about this movie said "as good as Alien!" and I scoffed, for how many movies profess to this level of quality, when in fact they suck as bad as Alien 3?
Turns out, though, they might have a point.
I give The Descent (which I saw on DVD, interestingly enough, since the British version is already available for purchase) four (****) stars.