A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
- Awards
- 8 wins & 22 nominations
Stephen Lamb
- Crawler
- (as Steve Lamb)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTwenty-one separate cave sets were built for the film. These were carefully reused with different camera angles, set dressing and lighting to suggest a nearly endless collection of interconnected tunnels and caverns. For realism, the makers often limited the lighting of the sets to light sources that the protagonists brought with them, such as flashlights, helmet lights and light sticks.
- GoofsAll of the spines in the various bone piles throughout the movie have the spines intact and the inter vertebral disks still present in the spines. Inter vertebral disks, however, are cartilage, not bone, and would have decayed (especially given that there is no clothing, hair, or fur in the bone piles, meaning that the bones are quite old). The spine segments should be scattered and in pieces, not in long segments.
- Crazy creditsThe creature's snarling sound can be heard at the end of the credits.
- Alternate versionsSPOILER: The endings of the US and UK versions differ. In the end, Sarah wakes up at the bottom of the cave, crawls out, and makes her way back to the car. When she is driving away, she pulls over and vomits, and when she leans back into the car, she is startled by the ghost of Juno sitting in the passenger seat. The US version cuts to the credits here. In the UK version, this apparition causes Sarah to wake up for real at the bottom of the cave, revealing her escape to be just a dream. She then has a vision of her daughter's birthday cake, which we see is just her torch. The camera backs out, the voices of the creatures can be heard again and are increasing in strength as they are closing in on her, and the movie ends. This ending was considered "too dark" for US audiences.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Descent: Deleted and Extended Scenes (2006)
Featured review
Focusing on the fear of claustrophobia with the simple dread of the unknown, The Descent puts likable characters in frightening situations. As a horror fanatic, this film floats at the top of my list of best scary films in recent years. The setup feels like it moves quickly and seamlessly into the main storyline, but that's because it's so beautifully shot, well-acted, and scripted so that we know and care enough about the characters to worry once they belay down into the dark cave. This character knowledge carries weight throughout the movie, as the group variously splinters and works together to escape. Shocks and jolts start before the central scare appears. And props to an all-woman cast that feels totally natural and not slapped together to achieve cheap feminist self-congratulations. Well-acted and atmospheric, I recommend this movie to anyone wanting to see a solid, scary horror movie that doesn't reinvent the genre, but definitely strays from the norm.
- SwatiUpadhay
- Jul 13, 2019
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- El descenso
- Filming locations
- Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK(on location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £3,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $26,024,456
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,911,330
- Aug 6, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $57,130,027
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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