The Descent (Neil Marshall 2005)

The Descent is about a group of women cave explorers who come together to explore this once cave that isn’t what they thought it would be. When one of the girls lie about the cave destination, the rest of the group find themselves exploring an unknown cave with no map and no knowledge if there is any exit out of the hell hold they have plunged themselves into. As they search for an exit together, the find they are not alone down in the caves and find themselves trying to out pace creatures that can not see but can only hear as they try to find the exit that will set them free of this unknown death cave.

This films fits into the horror genre by the way it links in with the codes and conventions of this specific genre. It links in with the specific codes and conventions through its use of the micro features (sound, mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing) there are many ways in which they have used these things to communicate to the audience that this film belongs in the horror genre. One of the ways it has done this is through its use of sound when within the cave and the screeches for music they have used in order to scare the audience and frighten them. The mise-en-scene has also been used in this film to indicate to the audience that it is belongs in the horror genre, by the way it has used the lighting, props, setting and facial expressions to communicate to the audience that this is a horror film. The lighting indicates to the audience that this is a horror film by the way such high key lighting is used at the beginning but when the horrific parts start to happen, that is when the low key lighting is used. The props that have been used such as the blood and weapons used communicate to the audience that this is a horror as these props have been purposefully used to scare the audience and to intentionally scare them. Finally for the mise-en-scene the setting and facial expressions used create a sense of tension and suspense amongst the audience, as down in the caves no one can here you from above and no one can help you and the facial expressions used communicate to the audience just how scary these creatures are. The cinematography and editing work together in the micro elements to create a theme of scarceness by the way the combine to frighten and petrify the audience and to leave them on the edge of their seats.

In my opinion what is horrific about this film is the sense of awkwardness created within this film and how when the group of girls are in the cave, some of the scenes make me feel uncomfortable like i cant breathe and i just want to move so that i can. The main thing for me and most probabaly the audience that scares me would be the monsters or creatures that are down in the caves that kill off the cavers one by one. These are what scare me the most as they show up out of know where without any kind of signal, they just pop up to scare the audience and pertify them. Once again the blood and gore and the way the director has made things so that they jump out at you have been used also is really horrific in this film and i think that is what scares the audience the most out of the whole film.

Most of the reviews are very good for this film and comment on the blood and gore and the horrificness of this film. Some are the reviews are as follows 'good performances from all involved' 'Magnificent gore fest' also other things such as, 'the film packs in top class gore with exquisitely detailed 'creatures' and brilliantly claustrophobic cinematography' and the final good comment that i have found from user reviews is 'This movie is certainly one of the best films of 2005'. There are some comments that dont reflect wel on the film as such reviews as 'the wild overpraising of this film' have been made about this horror and also things have been said by other critics such as ' I can honestly say this is the worst film I've seen at the cinema this year'.

What makes this film so British, is the British cast used in order to make the film and the fact the film is set in Britain. These two factors basically add up to make what about the whole film that s British. We can tell that the actors and actresses are British within this film through their accents and other things that we as the audience see and here throughout the film, we can see this film is set in Britain as we here a comment from one of the girls stating that it is.

These are some of the key scenes within the film;