The Descent (2006) DVD review

A friendly group of strong women spelunkers meet once a year to go, well…spelunking. Who ever wrote this film, took modern film theory in college. I’d bet money. Or, alternately, I could churn out a rather excellent essay about this film using basic feminist psychoanalysis–and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Women and gaping, dank, dark, unknown caves. (K’ got your Woman=Nature thinking cap on?) The cave is woman, the cave is monster. The cave will consume. However, these women are smart, strong, adventurous. They are not afraid of the dark…but maybe they should be. If the cave doesn’t kill them, the creepy cannibal creatures might…if they don’t just off each other first. No one here gets out alive. It’s brilliant.

In true divide and conquer anti-feminist, or feminist-misogynist–if you will–strategy we of course have the jealous dark one, who tries to show off by leaving the map in the van and leads the trusting bunch into uncharted underground territory.

This film was really, really clever. It had an all female cast AND it had superb gore.
I like a smart horror film as much as the next gore hound so really I found The Descent especially enjoyable. Did I mention that it was both gory AND intelligent. It also meet all of the criteria I have for enjoying the horror genre, which is a film that explores the idea that it isn’t so much bodies that matter, but it’s the “bodies that splatter that matter.” Alternately, if the bodies don’t matter, than it is who is killing that matters.

The Descent was creepy, gory, dark, clever, allegorical and ripe with symbolism. It’s feminist, it’s smart, it’s funny, it’s sexy (without those ridiculous scenes of perfect, naked “lesbians” hot for each other, obviously constructed for the male gaze) and it’s also pretty freaking scary.

Just rent it. Or buy it.

I did both.

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