The Descent
The Descent (2005) is a British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. (The 2006 North American release abbreviated the ending.)
It is notable for its central cast of six female characters.
Cast
- Shauna Macdonald as Sarah
- Natalie Mendoza as Juno
- Alex Reid as Beth
- Saskia Mulder as Rebecca
- MyAnna Buring as Sam
- Nora-Jane Noone as Holly
Summary
One year after a car accident killed her husband and young daughter, extreme-sport enthusiast Sarah joins her friends for a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. The expedition, lead by Juno, quickly runs into trouble after a cave-in traps them underground, and they realise that Juno lied to them and led them into an unexplored cave system, which she intended for them to discover.
As they attempt to find another exit to the caves, the group finds traces of human life (cave paintings, an ancient metal anchor stuck in the rock), and Sarah first glimpses creatures in the tunnels. However, Sarah's mental state is still precarious, because of her grief over her daughter's death.
Then the expedition finds a cave filled with bones, and are attacked by the creatures living in the caves. The wounded Holly dies first, and the rest of the expedition is separated as they fight for survival.
After killing one of the "crawlers", Juno accidentally stabs Beth through the neck with her pick, and leaves her to die.
Notes
The makers of The Descent constantly refer to the monsters as "hairless", citing this characteristic as an evolutionary trait in keeping with their blindess, as a result of living underground. This indicates that the filmmakers view the male form as the norm for these monsters, because although the majority of the monsters that appear onscreen are male and bald, the make-up designer gave the rarer female monsters long hair on their heads, resulting in a rather gratuitous instance of sexual dimorphism contrary to the story's world-building logic. The marked female form is probably for the audience's benefit, to make it clear during one particular confrontation that the character of Sarah is fighting a female monster.