Director: Jon Harris
Writer: James McCarthy, J. Blakeson and James Watkins
Rating: R
Release Date: December 2, 2009
This review is part of our 31 Days of Horror series. You can check out the other posts by clicking these words.
What’s this?
The Descent 2 is a direct sequel to 2005’s The Descent and basically starts right where the first movie left off. Sarah Carter (Shauna Macdonald) did end up making it out of the caves alive, but unfortunately, she doesn’t remember the events of the first film. What is also unfortunate is the fact that this movie is like most horror movie sequels in that the story is decent, but a lot of the magic that made the first movie so good is gone.
What exactly do you mean by that?
Not long after Sarah wakes up in the hospital, it is discovered that the blood she is covered in is not all hers. This causes the local Sheriff, Sheriff Vaines (Gavan O’Herlihy), to put together a group of people, including Sarah, to go back down into the caves and find anyone else who may be down there. The one thing about the first film is that we had no idea what to expect once the characters got into the caves. In this film, we already know what’s coming: crawlers, ugly ogre-like creatures that live underground and use sound to hunt since they are blind. You’d think that a new creature would be created to spice things up a bit. Maybe deeper into the caves since they run so deep into the Earth? But no.
Also, a lot of the first movie made you feel claustrophobic which added to the overall horror. Flashlights would die leaving the characters in complete darkness until they turned on the infrared setting on their camera or lit a flare. In the sequel, everything is well lit and the feeling of claustrophobia is gone. It also doesn’t help that we only see caves that we saw in the first film. No new locations that I noticed and this made it feel like a bit of a copy of the first film.
Are there any new surprises or twists that separates this film from the first?
No. Not really. I guess there is one twist closer to the end of the film that causes a problem. But seconds after this twist happens, the problem is solved and we’re back to just trying to find a way out of the caves. Very uneventful the twist is. Plus if you’ve seen the first film and think about it, you’ll more than likely figure out what the twist is anyways.
So is there anything that’s enjoyable about this film?
Picking it apart is quite enjoyable! But in all honesty, there are some pretty gnarly kills, there could be more but what we get is decent enough. Another thing I did enjoy was the fact that some of the characters would find dead bodies from the first film and would have to use them in order to survive. But once again, I find it hard to believe they would be following the exact same path as the people from the first film. Not very believable, even if it is a horror movie!
Recommendation?
When it comes down to it, no I wouldn’t recommend this movie. Just watch the first one and be satisfied. Don’t be let down by a rehashing of the same story. People go into the cave, realize there are flesh-eating monsters, and they try to escape. But this time around we get half the jump scares, no feeling of claustrophobia, and a twist that you will most likely see coming from a mile away. Watch the first and be done with it.
