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Gary Floyd

The Descent

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I saw "The Descent" last night, and inspite of 2Golds opinion, I loved it. Great, claustrophobic horror movie with some nice gore, badass (though sort of cheap) monsters, and tons of atmosphere. See it right fucking now, becasuse this is the kind of horror movie to see in a movie theatre.

 

Plus, it's from the director of "Dog Soldiers"

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I saw "The Descent" last night, and inspite of 2Golds opinion, I loved it. Great, claustrophobic horror movie with some nice gore, badass (though sort of cheap) monsters, and tons of atmosphere. See it right fucking now, becasuse this is the kind of horror movie to see in a movie theatre.

 

Plus, it's from the director of "Dog Soldiers"

 

Keep in mind I saw the original cut so they may have made this one flow better. I stand by what I said, the version I saw in 2005 had great potential but just seemed to be stuck in neutral until the final 30 minutes.

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I saw the original as well... the ending couldn't have been any more bleak and aggravating... I hate it when movies end like that.

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I thought it was dope. Better than the fuckin' pg-13 remakes I've heard about. The monsters were rip-offs of Blade II/From Dusk Till Dawn though. Still good show. Bravo to Europe for still going balls to wall with horror!

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What exactly is the new ending?

If it is what I'm hearing

they do the Juno ghost scene and the film ends.

 

Is that about right? Sounds to me like they felt like American audiences would have been too stupid to get the original ending if that is what they did.

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If I'm not mistaken, the original ending is

they do the Juno ghost scene, and then they reveal that the one surviving chick has only DREAMT that she escaped. But she's still in the cave, and the Crawlers are now creeping up, ready to devour her.

 

But I've seen neither version, so I'm not sure.

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If I'm not mistaken, the original ending is

they do the Juno ghost scene, and then they reveal that the one surviving chick has only DREAMT that she escaped. But she's still in the cave, and the Crawlers are now creeping up, ready to devour her.

 

But I've seen neither version, so I'm not sure.

 

Close

 

Juno ghost scene, she wakes from the dream and sees the opening to escape. But she encounters her daughter holding a birthday cake, she sits down in front of her and smiles. We go to a wider shot, she's sitting by herself on the ground in the cave smiling as the creatures growl and screech in the distance. Basically, she goes inside and decedes into madness.

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The movie was great, IMO. Though the original ending that 2GOLD quotes above is MUCH better than the ending we received in the theatres... though I didn't stay for the end of the credits, so maybe something was after that. Did anyone else?

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I hate movies where its too dark to see whats going on due to cheap production and attempted scary settings that fail, like the tunnel scenes in House of 1,000 Corpses.

 

The previews for this look very dark and hard to see. Whatta ya think?

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This moviw sounds like shit.

 

Wrong.

Damn right. Everyone who hasn't seen it should see it now.

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the extra 40 seconds are available on youtube, this is the UK ending. better than the other

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I just got home from seeing this movie with a friend of mine. We both loved this film. After reading that it received the Fango Seal of Approval I had to see it. I had an internship at Fangoria and Mike and Tony both said this movie was great. I'm glad I saw it, but I think the original ending would have been great to see in the theater. I don't see what the big deal about having a non-Hollywood ending is. It's better since it's more realistic.

 

By the way, what trailers did everyone see. I saw Saw III teaser which looked cool, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which looked really good, The Return (New Sarah Michelle Gellar film) which looked like crap, and the new film from the actor from The Transporter, which looks cool.

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I hate movies where its too dark to see whats going on due to cheap production and attempted scary settings that fail, like the tunnel scenes in House of 1,000 Corpses.

 

The previews for this look very dark and hard to see. Whatta ya think?

 

Nah, you'll be everything fine. Its very dark, but in a professional way in which you can still see.

 

As for the ending

I'm glad the way it ended in the orginal release. When I first saw it and saw her getting into her car, all I could think is if one of the creatures or something was in the car with her, and it ended, I would have been severly pissed off. When I saw they actually had her just giving up before the end, I liked it. I'm sure if I saw this cut version, I would have been pissed.

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Guest BOOT

I saw it when it came out in the UK and thought the stuff before they entered the cave was bad (like someone above said), but the rest was pretty good. I can't believe they changed the ending though (well I can, but I think it's outrageous). The bitch clearly deserved to die. When I saw it and I thought they'd let her escape I was pissed off.

 

Not sure if this is worthy of spoiler tags or not, but

as far as I remember, didn't she brutally assault one of her friends and leave her to die? Ok, so she was a little upset, but she still deserved to die for that.

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I loved the beginning of the film. I think the slow build up was great. I like when a horror film has character development. It reminded me of Wolf Creek with the slow build up before anything happened. It makes the first real scare (not cheep scare) that much better.

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Guest BOOT

I have nothing against slow build up and character devolpment, but I found The Descent's attempts poorly written and acted. It was a while ago when I saw it, but I remember cringing at some of the shit those stupid bitches were saying.

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I didn't really have a problem with any part of the film. And there was only about 15-20mins before they were in the caves. Nothing really offensive about the acting.

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When I saw it, there were entire sections of the film that could have been cut because they developed nothing. I love character development, I demand that a horror movie make me give a damn about the characters, and the Descent had some scenes that did it perfectly while the other scenes just seemed to be there. My whole beef was those scenes, the ones that did nothing for the characters or the story.

 

I'm being told that a lot of that mess was removed and the film rolls smoothly now. If that is the case, then it's a great film. Minus this new ending, which I'm sorry just sucks. It comes off like

a cheap, Grudge type ending with a ghost girl and a scream, instead of the blonde losing her mind. A ghost girl? Lame

 

And yes, I originally said the original ending sucked but that was because the pacing was incredibly off. With tighter pacing with the slow build, it's perfect.

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Just a terrible movie all around. I still don't know why it's getting all this praise. Constant jump scares and characters scaring each other for no reason are some of the worst things a horror movie can have. This movie had tons of it. Hell, if there was a mirror in the movie they probably would have pulled that "look in half opened mirror, close the mirror and some monster/person appears in the full view accompanied by loud sound" bullshit. Actually...that might have even happened in the movie. I saw it last year and don't remember much except being so incredibly angry at it. I've never hated a movie so much in my life.

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Just a terrible movie all around. I still don't know why it's getting all this praise. Constant jump scares and characters scaring each other for no reason are some of the worst things a horror movie can have. This movie had tons of it. Hell, if there was a mirror in the movie they probably would have pulled that "look in half opened mirror, close the mirror and some monster/person appears in the full view accompanied by loud sound" bullshit. Actually...that might have even happened in the movie. I saw it last year and don't remember much except being so incredibly angry at it. I've never hated a movie so much in my life.

 

Contsant jump scares? Well what other kinds of scares were you expecting them to go for? It's pretty obvious that this is the type of movie that uses this tactic, yet at least they use it to their full advantage.

 

Characters scaring eachother for no reason? I have no idea what you're talking about here...

 

In actuality it sounds like you're just overcompensating with your "hatred" for this movie because you can't seem to understand why it's getting so much praise.

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Just a terrible movie all around. I still don't know why it's getting all this praise. Constant jump scares and characters scaring each other for no reason are some of the worst things a horror movie can have. This movie had tons of it. Hell, if there was a mirror in the movie they probably would have pulled that "look in half opened mirror, close the mirror and some monster/person appears in the full view accompanied by loud sound" bullshit. Actually...that might have even happened in the movie. I saw it last year and don't remember much except being so incredibly angry at it. I've never hated a movie so much in my life.

 

Contsant jump scares? Well what other kinds of scares were you expecting them to go for? It's pretty obvious that this is the type of movie that uses this tactic, yet at least they use it to their full advantage.

 

Characters scaring eachother for no reason? I have no idea what you're talking about here...

 

In actuality it sounds like you're just overcompensating with your "hatred" for this movie because you can't seem to understand why it's getting so much praise.

 

As I said I don't remember exact details since it was more than a year since I saw it but one of the characters actually died due to the stupid "characters must scare each other for no god damn reason" rule in most crappy horror movies. It's suposed to be some big dramatic reveal when it happens too but all it comes across as is a cheap ploy. Should I honestly care that one character was stupid enough to tap the other girl on the back while she was ferociously killing one of the monsters? How about just saying her name to get her attention? And jump scares should be used in moderation or they become tedious. I only hate this movie because of the praise it's getting. It's not just that the majority of people and critics are saying that this is a good movie, it's that they're saying it's a masterpiece of horror with great depth which pisses me off. I could easily sneak up behind you and blow an airhorn in your ear, causing you to jump. I bet it would get you every time too. Would that make me a master of horror?

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Saw it this weekend.

 

-The "jump scares" criticism is kinda silly since almost every scene in the film is constructed to allow for that sort of thing to happen. The timing of the edits is really awkward and dread-inspiring. I thought the selection of jumps was good.

 

-Liked it a lot. The claustrophobic cave stuff was absolutely terrifying. First 45 minutes were expertly shot and freaky as hell. Overall it was one of the better horror movies I've seen recently, and certainly one of the most clever with regards to gender, Final Girl tradition, and all that fun Kristeva/Bataille/Caruth stuff that makes dissecting horror movies a kick.

 

-Would have liked it better if

the crawlers had gotten less exposure, been seen less, etc. Something more akin to the treatment of the alien in Alien would have suited the movie's tone better; had it held up the level of tension and terror that the first 45 minutes had, it would have been an instant classic instead of just very good.

For the same tonal reasons, I like the UK ending a little better. Good arguments could be made for both.

 

-After the second scene of the movie (

car accident/pipes through the faces of her husband and daughter, holy shit that was raw

), someone two rows behind me said "THAT'S wassup." Funniest fucking thing I've heard in weeks.

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