When I first saw The Descent in theaters back in 2005, I loved the movie! Me and two of my friends had just gone to a horror convention and actually got a poster for the film. So after the convention we decided to just go and see a movie, a horror movie of course, and The Descent was playing. So we saw the movie and had a great time. Afterwords I told everyone I knew to go see it. And when it was released on DVD I made sure to get myself a copy.
I never really thought that The Descent was one of those movies that could possibly have a sequel. And when you watch the ending your not really wanting anymore of the story to continue. Well depending on which ending you saw, there was actually two. The European version has it that no one makes it out, while the American version has a more happier ending if you want to call it that. I guess the filmmakers went with the American version, but where would they go with it anyway? Well I guess the makers of the film had some ideas because they decided to make The Descent: Part 2. When I heard that a sequel was in the works I figured that it was going to be one of those direct to video deals, with a new cast of characters basically doing the same thing from the last movie but not as good. But that wasn’t really the case. The actress who played the lone survivor Sarah came back to continue where her character left off.
Just for a recap of the first movie—- six friends who meet yearly on some sort of adventure travel to the Appalachian Mountain to go cave exploring. All of them end up getting stuck in an undiscovered cave system miles underneath the earth. As they explore the cave system hoping to find a way back to the surface they realize that they are not alone. Hidden in the darkness are creatures half bat-half human that begin to prey on the group, leaving them with little hope of ever getting out of the cave alive.
The Descent: Part 2 starts up a few minutes after the first one. A search and rescue team have been searching for the group of missing women for two days. Sarah the lone survivor to make it out of the cave system alive has been found, covered in blood and hysterical. When the police question her she has no memory of what happen, just horrible nightmarish images she can’t make out. The local sheriff suspects Sarah of having something to do with the other girls and forces her to go back with the search and rescue cave team to help find where the other women are.
If I had to choose between the two films obviously the first one is the best. But as far as a sequel goes it wasn’t that bad at all. It’s probably one of the better sequels to a horror movie in a long time. It recaptured the same feeling of claustrophobia like the first one, and the dark atmosphere. But then again they weren’t showing me anything new, which it would have been nice to have seen something a little different just once. The only main problem I had with the film was the story itself, somethings just really did not make that much sense to me. For example why would anyone want to go back into that cave system after being trapped in there, or even knowing that someone had just been trapped in there. It just doesn’t make any sense, nor is it believable. Also they got rid of three characters in a very short amount of time when I think they should have been around a little longer and gotten rid of the others in the search group like the annoying sheriff and deputy.
I did however really like that the Sarah character got back into the flow of things. She basically became the badass she was at the end of the first film all over again. And I’m glad that Juno, who was probably the second strongest and badass character from the last film came back. And the audience was able to see her storyline continue on as well. I just wish it didn’t have to take half the entire movie for her to finally appear. She really is what the audience is waiting for to pop out once your back in the cave. But I do wish that they had more emphasis between Juno and Sarah’s character. I really wanted them to go at it with each other due to the circumstances from the previous film, but it really didn’t happen the way I wanted it to. It was almost like water under the bridge to them when really it is a much bigger deal then that.
I also have a feeling that the ending to this movie will have a lot of people just shaking there heads or getting pissed off. Because just when you think it’s going to end an your satisfied with it, you are thrown a curve ball that just doesn’t make sense and your given no real explaination. I thought the ending was kind of dumb and I’m hoping that when the DVD comes out there will be an alternative that I can be satisfied with. So it might not be as great as the first one, but I still had a lot of fun with it. If you enjoyed the first film as much as I did then I do recommend checking out this one when it comes to DVD. It’s one of the better horror sequels to come out and the good thing is it starts right up where the first one left off.