BLOODvember Day 5: THE DESCENT (2005)

Yes, that date in the header says 2005, and yes it is correct, which means that The Descent is almost 15 years old. And here I was, feeling ancient because The Witch is gonna turn five soon. Meanwhile The Descent is out here ready to start hounding all of us to get her learner's permit. Next thing you know it'll be "Can I borrow the car? We're meeting at the mall and then later we're gonna go to Friendly's" and I'll say "I thought you were going to Boreham Caverns?" and then she'll go "More like Boredom Caverns" and that's the last I'll ever see of her because she'll get eaten by crawlers whilst enjoying a Jim Dandy sundae, or perhaps a Fribble.

Anyway, I recently watched The Descent for, yes, an episode of Gaylords of Darkness and yes, it absolutely holds up. I thought maybe the bloom would have fallen a wee bit off the rose, but no. NO I SAY. It's still fantastic, still one of the best horror films of the new millenium, if not of all time.

One of the reasons for that is this utterly startling moment, when the crawlers are finally revealed in all their creepy. disgusting glory:

It takes so long to get there–this scene occurs about an hour in–and we don't care in the least. From the feelings of claustrophobia that are induced by all those too-small tunnels to the feelings of hopelessness because these women are well and truly fucked, we're already on edge and terrified. The crawlers show up, the violence kicks in, and our heroines are picked off one by one in rather rapid succession. I've seen it so many times now, yet I still hope that Sarah and Beth will get out...and Sam and Rebecca...okay, even shitty Juno and, yeah, I guess even Holly. Ultimately this movie is such a tragedy, but damn if it isn't gory, delightful fun in getting there.