The Descent 2005

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The movie is also spooky and atmospheric, has at least three great jolts and an equal number of memorable gross-outs, including what has to be the goriest and most protracted eye-gouging of the year. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Descent is a sharp hammer to the head and a claw to the gut, a blood-drenched creep show that wants to eat you alive. Beware, and bon appetit. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: The Descent seems less about female empowerment than female misery. One wonders if Marshall has issues. No males suffer here, just women who, even if they survive, won't ever be the same again. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The Descent is simply a shock-'em, shake-'em genre piece with scare scenes that, however effective, suggest cheap-shop versions of a lot we've seen before. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: This intermittently effective UK horror thriller carefully establishes the psychological relationships among the women, then squanders this calibrated and generally plausible setup with a series of crude, implausible, and scattershot horror effects. Read more

Judy Chia Hui Hsu, Seattle Times: Tight shots of women desperately wriggling through worm holes or teetering on a ledge overlooking an abyss create a claustrophobic effect, one that leaves the characters gasping for air and the audience breathing shallower. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Marshall understands that sometimes there's nothing quite as oddly exhilarating as the bleakest, no-way-out kind of horror. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The Descent sustains a level of intensity that most horror films can barely muster for five minutes. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Sorry, George Lucas, but CGI creatures usually look pretty fake; the crawlers, however, are quite realistic and creepy, especially as they skitter over the walls and roofs of the caves. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: A cult classic is born. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Made with a connoisseur's love of muck, blood, inky darkness, and equal parts elegance and ewwww, The Descent raises the level of the post-Blair Witch, post-Open Water horror game. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: You genuinely care about the six women who enter a cave in the Appalachian mountains, only to discover it crawling with flesh-eating predators who have adapted to life in the dark. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The movie devolves into a conventional man-versus-nature pursuit, further marred by performances just this side of a high-toned porno and the frequently irrational behavior of its characters. Read more

Stephen Williams, Newsday: The Descent doesn't need to exist: a script that goes beyond outlandish. Actors who'd flunk out of Make Believe 101. Blind creatures that see things. Did we mention continuity? Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Every theater should come with a sign: Your expectations must be this low to ride. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This is one of the scariest movies featuring female heroines since the Alien series. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This grueling trapped-in-a-cave-with-boogey-men movie is a solid thriller, and a terrific horror experience. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: For horror fans and those who love things that go bump in the night, this is one not to miss. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Prepare to be scared senseless, and then, when you think you have it figured, your certainty will be shaken by scenes built to scare you even more. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Do we even need men in horror films any more? They're bound to do something stupid, they almost always get killed in the end and don't look as good covered in sweat and blood. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The film redeems itself through the denouement, building on that initial psychological foundation to hint disturbingly at a metaphoric struggle with interior demons. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: While the movie has wonderful moments of unmotivated tension that make sure we're quite ill at ease from the beginning, it's also got a few too many of the kind of cheap boo-scares that indicate a director not fully trusting his grip on you. Read more

Sarah Lilleyman, TIME Magazine: Marshall could very well be the Caravaggio of the B-movie. Read more

Time Out: Thanks to its skilful director, well-cast actors and talented technical team, this fiercely entertaining British horror movie has blood, guts and brains. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The movie's thrill-and-chill sequences are nasty and suspenseful, though once the creatures start to attack, the scenes get repetitive. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: For my money, [the] first 20 or so minutes are the best in the film. Once the real adventure gets underway in the cave, things get less interesting. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: An object lesson in making a tightly-budgeted, no-star horror pic work through razor-sharp technique and committed performances alone. Read more

Rob Nelson, Village Voice: Not since John Sayles and Joe Dante unleashed Piranha and The Howling on Hollywood's New Morning have two features torn open the horror movie with the cut-rate ferocity and gleeful disreputability of [Neil] Marshall's Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: [Marshall] does have a nice taste for horror imagery: The first glimpse of one of the creatures, as debased and revolting and craven as a living thing could be, will stay with you a long time. Read more