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IT is supposed to begin where the earlier, and better, film (according to those who’ve seen it) left of but The Descent — Part 2 is blood-curdling horror but no logical, cumulative effect, events take place and the gooey, crawling cave monsters come and go with little rhyme and even less reason. The establishing shots pan over an expanse of green pine forests, helicopter shots of the tall trees and the thin white line of the road below. A cop drives his pick-up and is forced to brake over a deer crossing the road. More interestingly, it is a bloodstained Sarah (Shuna MacDally) who makes her entry. Cut to Sarah in hospital, dazed, speechless, and her mind blank to the events that ensued. But she is persuaded
(off screen) to join a rescue party to look for the four other women,
who disappeared a week ago. No, it’s nothing like Peter Weir’s Picnic
at Hanging Rock, a classic suspense thriller of the 1970s, and
must not even be spoken of in the same breath.
Sarah is like a zombie and Dan (Douglas Hodge) and three others do their best to communicate with her. Now enter the caves but it is not journey to the centre of the earth. How Shuna gets back speech isn’t clear, may be that part fell to the floor of the editing room but director Jon Harris has his foot on the horror accelerator. May be like his lead character Sarah, he was in a trance right through. It is now much footage on cave monsters and claustrophobic isolation that grips the viewer. Just horror for horror’s sake. The action is sustained underground and the rescue party is preyed upon by these howling, gooey creatures, FX et al. May be the scriptwriters J. Blakeson and others just did not think it necessary. This dose of unexplained horror goes on quite indefinitely, till they prepare the ground for the sequel. But good God who wants to see it. Isn’t this one bad enough? It’s a real horror to the horror genre.
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