By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
A funny thing happens when you watch enough horror movies: ironically enough, it becomes harder and harder to find a film that really scares you. That’s because so few spooky movies have genuinely original ideas behind them, and far too many modern scary films disappear into a self-congratulatory miasma of Whedonesque references and cutesy quips. Fortunately, there’s one terrifying modern monster classic that you can stream for free: The Descent, now available on Tubi.
The Descent Into Terror
Even by horror standards, The Descent has a streamlined narrative, focusing on the misadventures of a group of women who decide to go spelunking in North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains. The trip might be just the thing to take our lead character’s mind off the grief she is still processing from the tragic loss of her husband and daughter the year before, but things go sideways when everyone ends up in an unknown cave system. But everyone soon has much more than trauma and getting lost to worry about when they run afoul of horrific goblin-like creatures waiting to kill anything they can get their claws on.
Part of what makes The Descent interesting as a horror film is that (aside from the monstrous “crawlers”) all of the characters are played by women. This includes Shauna Macdonald (best known for the TV show Spooks) and Natalie Mendoza (best known for the TV show Hotel Babylon). The film also stars Alex Reid (previously known for the TV show Ultimate Force), MyAnna Buring (best known for appearing in the Twilight movies and the Witcher series).
From a box office perspective, The Descent is one of those spooky movies that was made on a relatively tiny budget and brought in (relative to its cost) some major profit. The movie was produced on an estimated budget of £3.5 million (or a little over $4.3 million) and brought in a monster-sized $57.1 million at the box office. This was enough to warrant a sequel, but The Descent 2 ended up being a critical and commercial flop.
Fortunately, the original movie is one beloved by critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Descent has an 87 percent critical rating, with critics generally praising the movie’s strong performances and intensely claustrophobic vibes. Via the Popcornmeter, the movie also has a 76 percent audience rating, proving that this isn’t one of those horror movies that critics love and audiences despite (like pretty much every other “elevated horror” film).
Serious Nightmares
As for me, I loved The Descent for many of the same reasons…the all-female cast may sound like pandering, but it was done to separate this movie from other horror films (like director Neil Marshall’s earlier movie Dog Soldiers). Throughout the film, the characters really do feel like friends whose bonds are constantly being tested by the outlandish situation they are in. Plus, while these aren’t exactly household names, each character comes across as unique thanks to the creative performances of the cast.
But the real reason to watch The Descent is that it’s genuinely terrifying and manages to deliver visceral scares by simply refining a few classic horror formulas into something that feels exciting and new. We’ve got characters who are trapped, but in a cave in the mountains rather than a cabin in the woods; we’ve got monsters who look like Gollum’s third cousin, but they are treated with deadly earnestness. Throw in the horrifying beginning and bleak ending (especially on the unrated version) and you’ve got a movie guaranteed to haunt you…one we really wouldn’t recommend trying to watch before bedtime unless you’re ready for some serious nightmares.
Will you find The Descent as nail-bitingly terrifying as I did, or is this one movie you’d rather throw into an unexplored cave system? You won’t know until you take the plunge for yourself. Once this claustrophobic classic gets its claws into you, though, be warned…you won’t be able to look away and you’ll never forget what you see.