The Descent: Part 2
The Descent: Part 2 DVD (2009, Jon Harris, Pathe Video)
If a franchise promises to up the ante in the second instalment, you usually take that with a pinch of salt. But when the makers of The Descent: Part 2, the follow-up to Neil Marshall’s nasty subterranean horror from 2005, said they were going bigger and more shocking they really weren’t kidding. Released in cinemas at the tail end of last year, this one’s now out on DVD for you to turn down the lights and ‘enjoy’ in the comfort of your own home. Just don’t look over your shoulder…
Beginning more or less straight away after the conclusion of The Descent, we catch up with Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), survivor of the caving expedition that claimed her friends’ lives. She can’t remember what happened, and probably a good job too, because she would never, ever agree to guide a team back down into the caves if she could recall facing the creepy ‘crawlers’ (as they came to be known): blind mutants who live on human flesh and rely on super hearing to catch their prey.
So, down Sarah goes again – this time taking with her a couple of cops trying to figure out what happened, and suspecting Sarah of doing her mates in (led by the obnoxious Sheriff Vaines, played by Gavin O’Herlihy) plus other members of the rescue party who’ve been searching for the missing cavers. Of course, when they get down there it isn’t long before they’re separated from each other, becoming fodder for the crawlers once more. It’s up to Sarah – regaining not only her memory, but her humanity – to fight back, along with a surprise twist figure who comes to Vaines’ aid. But who will survive this time, and will the secret of what’s really beneath the Appalachian Mountains ever get out?
In some ways The Descent 2 is a retread of the original, except while that cast was all-female, we now have a few blokes in the mix. But this testosterone only adds to the extra tension, especially when Vaines goes blundering into situations with his gun blazing. Yes, we’re taken to many of the same cave locations again, but this time we’re also treated to an opening out of the area – the first cave we come to, for example, feels so much bigger than anything in the original film. That’s not to say there aren’t some very claustrophobic set pieces – like being trapped by rocks and rubble, while a crawler is attempting to get to one character. Or squeezing down a narrow crawlspace only to be cut off by one of the creatures at the far end.
There are also some ‘jump out of your seat’ moments, as well as the obligatory gory bits – swinging on a corpse of one of the girls from the previous film, for instance, or having to hack off a hand at the wrist with a pick. Once again this is Macdonald’s movie, though, and she continues to shine as the ‘Ripley’ of this series. We’re also in the hands of a capable director who knows the material well, Jon Harris, who edited the first film. Add to this extras such as a commentary, an enjoyable set of ‘making of’ mini-movies, deleted scenes, storyboard and production design galleries, plus theatrical trailer, and you have a pretty decent descent into horror sequeldom. Paul Kane
