THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
Kick-Ass
Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Jon Harris. Starring Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Gavan O'Herlihy, Joshua Dallas, Anna Skellern, Douglas Hodge and Krysten Cummings. Horror/Thriller. UK, 90 minutes.

More of the same, if not as nerve-shreddingly brilliant, there’s still much to enjoy in the companion piece to Neil Marshall’s chilling original if you can get over a few plot hurdles.

Picking up exactly where THE DESCENT left off, veteran editor Jon Harris makes the grade to director in the much bigger looking and handsomely produced if less harrowing sequel. No matter which ending of THE DESCENT you saw, either in America or internationally, depressed, haunted and hunted Sarah Carter (a returning Shauna MacDonald) didn’t die according to the filmmakers despite opinions being divided over that controversial aspect. So emerging from the Appalachian mountain caves where she recently confronted her darkest dreads, the traumatized survivor is forced back into the subterranean depths by the unfeeling authorities who consider her a murder suspect to help locate her five missing girlfriends. Unlike Sarah though, who gradually regains her memory of how futile their mission will be via stark flashbacks, the rescue party have no idea what lies in horrific store as they enter the domain of a new breed of vicious feral Crawlers. Heavily contrived at certain points, the reappearance of one ‘dead’ character being the worst offender, over-familiarity with the emulated claustrophobic atmospheres and frightening darkness does diminish the nightmare intensity. Harris to varying degrees apes Marshall’s scare techniques more than creates his own brand – the sudden appearances of the now inbred and deformed creatures being one particular area he should have stamped more personality on. Yet to be fair Harris is ironically caught between a rock and a hard place with this continuation of Marshall’s ‘six chicks with picks’ premise.

Clearly expectation was bound to be high so Harris would probably be damned no matter what avenues he pursued despite the underlying focus of his more than competent sequel being about Sarah’s redemptive ascent, after her prior descent into all types of hell, aided by deputy sheriff Elen Rios, a sterling turn by newcomer Krysten Cummings. And Harris’ efficient direction means his well-staged action highlights ably milk all the cliff-hanging/rock-fall/underwater sequel requirements - and that of a most intriguing downbeat climax meaning THE DESCENT: PART 3(D?) can’t be too far behind.

ALAN JONES

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2009
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