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
With Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall created a tight and claustrophobic atmosphere then added the scares to create a very good horror film. However, the tension was often released with humour and the audience were allowed to catch their breath and relax. At no point in The Descent are you allowed to relax as Marshall grabs your attention within the first few minutes and doesn't let go until the credits roll at the end.
With the film set almost entirely underground, the lack of light is used to wonderful effect and Marshall keeps you on edge for 100 minutes; if you liked Dog Soldiers, 28 Days Later and/or Haute Tension and are sick of the formulaic rubbish being pumped out of Hollywood then The Descent is likely to be right up your street.
With the film set almost entirely underground, the lack of light is used to wonderful effect and Marshall keeps you on edge for 100 minutes; if you liked Dog Soldiers, 28 Days Later and/or Haute Tension and are sick of the formulaic rubbish being pumped out of Hollywood then The Descent is likely to be right up your street.
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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