The Descent -- 2005 -- R

Wow! That was really something. This horror flick about six women who venture into an unexplored cave threatens to be old, boring, or cliche, but comes off as a very good suspense movie.

Quite simply, you have a group of thrill-seeking women, who are looking to have a little spelunking adventure in a cave in the Appalachian Mountains. They get down in there, have a cave in, and discover their friend has brought them into an entirely new cave with no map and no known way out. See? It's movies like these that make me NOT want to go spelunking...ever. I don't have claustrophobia, but I can't handle situations like this.

Anyway, they make decent progress until they learn this cave is inhabited, and the creatures inhabiting it are rather hungry. They find out some good info about the creatures after they kill off (and eat) some of their party, and surmise there must be another way out since these creatures bring animals underground to eat. So the film becomes a race against the creatures. Will they get out, or get eaten?

Character-wise, this film is well done. I got a sense of each one of the party members, especially the main one whose family factors prominently in the teaser. The thought that something would happen to them did make me feel sorry for them. The film was so overall relatable from a general perspective that it was easy to get into and forget you're watching a film. I admit to jumping quite a few times when stuff happened. Since the plot was simple, more time was given to the development of the characters. And further, since they were all women, they spok freely about everything -- something not believable had there been a man in the group.

Plot wise, we're not dealing with rocket science. Get into a cave, get trapped, work against not only your failing and dwindling equipment, but eventually against some baddies to escape. We get some good claustrophobic moments as well as lots of dark area around the characters where just anything could happen. The creatures are powerful enough to be a significant threat, and since they live in the dark, they're somewhat scary as well.

I will say it got a little tedious for while as they went from cave to cave, and then after the initial attack of the creatures. I wanted it to get moving again, but it wasn't bad, and was probably just the tension.

There was even a bit of a character conflict twist thrown in during the first attack. This played out in several subsequent scenes, ending in a just desserts kind of ending for that character. It really showed the animal coming out in one of them. It makes you wonder where the creatures really came from, as that is never fulled covered (and honestly didn't need to be; we got enough).

I will complain a little about the reversal at the very, very end. I saw the unrated original version, and the end kind of fools you. I really didn't like the way it ended and I understand the American theatrical release ended it on a more upbeat note.

This was a fun movie. It was simple with good characters, and quite a few nice scares to it. It built suspense and tension, and made sense as it all rolled out. Definitely worth seeing.