Synopsis

Twelve moths after a tragic accident, six women meet in a remote part of the Appalachians for their annual extreme adventure. Sarah, who is the sole survivor of a car accident, is still haunted by the memory of losing those she loved the most. For her, the exploration of the cave hidden deep in the woods North Carolina poses a huge challenge. The group makes their way through the remote cave system, enjoying the hazardous but beautiful surroundings.The excitement of exploring the cave is tempered when, far below the surface of the earth, disaster strikes, and there's no way out. The group splinters and each woman pushes on, praying for another exit. But there is something else lurking in the cave and they are its prey. The women are forced to unleash their most primal instincts in an all-out war against a terrifying unspeakable horror that attacks without warning, again and again.

What The Critics Say

"The Descent is a sharp hammer to the head and a claw to the gut, a blood-drenched creep show that wants to eat you alive. Beware, and bon appetit." Tom Long DETROIT NEWS "The most effective cinematic chiller since "Alien". 4 STARS." Clint Morris MOVIEHOLE "A harrowing, brutal piece of work -- my hand was over my mouth for the last 30 minutes, lest I scream like a little girl on fire. Not to be missed." Brian Juergens FREEZE DRIED MOVIES "Brutal, bloody, terrifying, astonishing." Dan Jolin EMPIRE MAGAZINE UK "The excellent all-girl spelunking claustrophobic horror flick is arguably the first truly scary film in the genre since the greats of the 1980's." Garth Franklin DARK HORIZONS "For horror fans and those who love things that go bump in the night, this is one not to miss." James Berardinelli REELVIEWS "..I almost thought that the tension of the caving scenes, themselves, at the beginning of the film, and the accident and all this stuff that takes place, was almost horrific enough for me because I'm not exactly claustrophobic, but I certainly would not, in my wildest dreams go caving." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES

"Hugely claustrophobic and skin-crawlingly intense ... and then the flesh-eating monsters come out. Hyperbole be danged: This is the best, purest horror film in years." Andrew Wright THE STRANGER SEATTLE "Packed with slick surprises, jarring jolts, gruesome gore, and unbearable tension, The Descent is one of the best horror films of the past several years." Scott Weinberg EFILMCRITIC.COM "The Descent marks the arrival of a major horror talent. And it is, quite simply, one of the best monster movies in years." James Emanuel Shapiro REEL.COM "Bring a change of pants, because this one's a soiler." Eric D Snider ERICDSNIDER.COM "One of the scariest horror movies of the past 20 years. Would do Wes Craven, George A. Romero and James Whale proud." Alex Sandell JUICY CEREBELLUM "There is nothing like a good scary horror story. "The Descent" is one of the most effective I’ve seen recently. I sat through this film in a state of high tension and sweaty palms almost from the opening moments. It’s enormously effective. I thought it was pretty good. 4 STARS." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES

The Inside Story Those who saw and thoroughly enjoyed Neil Marshall's "Dog Soldiers" are in for a real treat with the realease of his latest terror/drama/ spine-tingling production, "The Descent". Those who have never heard of the director/screenwriter and are fans of the genre will find this claustraphobic journey for six girlfriends, deep inside an uncharted cave in North Carolina's Appalachians is a truly worthwhile experience. What is a surprise is that despite the critical acclaim for "The Descent" it has taken such a long while to get a release date in Australia. As they say: 'All good things come to those who wait.' And "The Descent" is good. Very good! Those who took in 2002's "Dog Soldiers" will immediately notice something in common with the two films. "In many ways, "The Descent" is the sister film to "Dog Soldiers", says Marshall. "Instead of six men, there are six women trapped and facing a common foe. But rather than bond together in the face of adversity, the women turn against each other and their relationships disintegrate. It's about a descent into madness." Creating this descent into madness took two years out of Neil Marshall's life during which he collaborated on the script with joint managing director of Celador Films, Christian Colson. Why did it take so long to come up with the finished script? Colson recalls: "Neil came in and pitched the idea to me about two and a half years ago. I really wanted to work with him and I really liked the basic story idea. We went through ten, maybe fifteen drafts, adding more depth to the back-story until we all felt it was ready." So what was the biggest challenge? "The first draft of the script was a lot more caricatured," admits Marshall. "The women were a bit more stylized and slightly unrealistic. The action hasn't really changed at all, but the characters have become much more real and human." And how was it, making the change from an all-male ensemble to an all female one? Marshall says "it turned out to be an absolute dream. We managed to achieve that same atmosphere of collaboration, and a good sense of fun and of professionalism. These women were game for anything, and on screen they're just mind-blowing." As mindblowing as 'The Crawlers'? "I wanted actors rather than dancers to play the crawlers," says the director. "The make-up they have allows them to express themselves fully, both physically and with facial expressions, and putting actors in the make-up and costumes was ideal." Craig Conway and Les Simpson who worked on "Dog Soldiers" also worked on "The Descent". "We tried to find a sense of physicality that was different from humans," says Conway. "A lot of films now use CGI to create these movements, but on this film we wanted to go for the real thing." Prosthetics supervisor Paul Hyett who was brought on-board to refine the design into a functional prosthetic revealed, "We tried to give all the crawlers a distinct personality." "There's one called Scar who has lip pieces that pull down the corner of his mouth, almost like a dog snarling. We gave the females a witch-like look. We also did a child crawler with a bulbous head. All of them have little quirks." And was it true that the actresses didn't see 'The Crawlers' before their scenes were shot? Marshall says it's true. "It really helped build up the tension and anticipation," he said. "They didn't know what to expect, and they got really, really nervous about it." How effective was the first encounter with a 'Crawler'? Actress Shauna Macdonald won't ever forget that first time. "The first scene we did with them, they just scared the living daylights out of me," remembers Saskia Mulder. "We were supposed to stand still, and I went screaming to the other side of the room." The last to encounter a 'Crawler' was actress Alex Reid. "I was so frustrated because everyone else had seen them before me," she says. "But keeping them hidden really worked. It built up so much anticipation and adrenalin." "The crawlers are cave men that never left the cave," explains director Neil Marshall. "They've evolved over thousands of years, living down there in families. They've lost their eyesight; they have acute hearing and smell; and they function perfectly in the pitch black. I'm absolutely over the moon with how the crawlers look. They're incredibly physical and virile and fierce looking. Whatever your worst nightmare underground could be, meeting these guys is pretty much it. Slimy, hideous, writhing, biting, monsters." But what do they really look like? "If a Klingon and Spock had a child, but it was totally hairless, and a bit shorter and quite sinewy, and was cousins with Gollum, that's basically what a crawler would look like," says Macdonald. While they look very effective on the big screen, spare a thought for those who played 'crawlers' in "The Descent". Hyett and his team routinely spent three and a half hours completing the make-up for just one crawler. "Once the prosthetics, contact lenses and dentures are applied, we do a full body paint design, which is air brushed completely," he explained. "The crawlers have white, translucent skin, with loads of marbling and veins, and loads of slime and dirt patterns." Once seen, most will agree that considering they had a low budget for the film, the production team have produced a highly entertaining journey into terror. Not only that, everyone was full of praise for Marshall's work. "Working with Neil has been a real pleasure," says Christian Colson. "He's incredibly passionate about what he does. He's incredibly laid back on set. And he's confident enough in his abilities to take the best of everybody's contributions." For Marshall, the best moments are when he sits in with an audience who are watching his film. "You can feel the fear. You can hear the gasps and the jolts and the screams and the laughs, and that's very satisfying from a filmmaker's point of view. I just love scaring the pants off people," he says. What They Had To Say "Juno is a mass of contradictions," says Natalie Mendoza. "She's fearless, but she's completely cowardly as well. When it comes to anything emotional, she loses it. But she's vulnerable as well: she made a mistake, and she wants to rectify that and get rid of her guilt."
"There were days when you just wanted to say, 'Stop. Can I have a break?' You're completely drenched, the studio is freezing, there's a draft, and it just doesn't stop," recalls Saskia Mulder.
"Neil is very free to change things," says Shauna Macdonald. "He actually encourages coming to set with an open mind about things, even in terms of the dialogue. We've been really lucky to have someone who has allowed us to collaborate."
Asked about working with an all-female ensemble, actress Alex Reid offered. "I never experienced that before, and I don't think you hear of many jobs, especially in this genre, where that happens."
"It was pretty harrowing," admits actress Natalie Mendoza. "I have never felt that much rage. Fighting a man and having to throw him was so gruelling, and fighting on the industrial sand was like glass cutting your skin."
"It's so gratifying when you do a film where you learn a new skill," says Saskia Mulder. "Because of all the training I did, I'm now actually quite a good climber and that's very cool. I was really excited by the thought of the shoot being so physical and so extreme."
"Holly lives for the adrenalin high of adventure and danger," says Nora Jane Noone. "She's an adventure sports/punk chick, so she was great fun to play. She rushes into danger head first, but it catches up with her."
"We've created an entire world of different caves," says production design Simon Bowles. "Some of them we took molds from real existing cliff faces. Other caves were more uneven with stalactites and calcium deposits."
"I didn't want there to be any gratuitous light sources in the caves," says director Neil Marshall, "which can be a problem when a character only has a box of matches as a light source. But I just decided if the characters only have matches to light their way, then that's what we'll use as well." The Verdict "Director Neil Marshall cunningly lulls the audience into a false state of security, first with the breathtaking drop into the cave and then with the beauty of what the cave reveals. Then the cracks appear. One of the women becomes stuck in a narrow tunnel. There's a cave-in. A feeling of dread creeps in. Claustraphobic feelings grip you. You begin to develope a feeling of dread. It's easy to imagine you are there. Trapped deep beneath the earths surface. Is there a way out, you ask yourself. Then you realize, you're not alone. There's something else in the cave. The most truly terrifying film I've seen in years. Not gruesome. Just terrifying. 4 1/2 STARS. Cast & Crew Bytes "THE DESCENT" stars .......
Natalie Mendoza ["Moulin Rouge!", "Horseplay" and "Code 46"]; Alex Reid ["Last Orders", "The Honeymooners" and "Wilderness"]; Saskia Mulder ["Bimboland", "The Beach" and "Belhorizon"]; Nora-Jane Noone ["The Magdalene Sisters", "Ella Enchanted", "News for the Church" and "The Listener"], Myanna Buring ["The Omen"] and Shauna Macdonald ["The Debt Collector", "Late Night Shopping", "Niceland" and "Chicken Soup"] as Sarah.
"THE DESCENT" was .......
directed by Neil Marshall ["Combat" and "Dog Soldiers"]; screenplay by Neil Marshall ["Killing Time", "Combat" and "Dog Soldiers"]; costume design by Nancy Thompson ["Eyes Wide Shut" and "Mission: Impossible II"]; cinematography by Sam McCurdy ["Preaching to the Perverted", "Combat" and "Dog Soldiers"]; original music composed by David Julyan ["Memento", "Insomnia" and "The Prestige"]; special make-up & effects designer Paul Hyett ["Lighthouse", "The Last Horror Movie" and "Cold and Dark"]; production design by Simon Bowles ["Virtual Terror", "The Enemy", "Dog Soldiers" and "Cold and Dark"]. Run Time 95 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - Lions Gate Films - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved