10 October 2010

The Descent: Part 2

Horror Movie of the Day, 10 October 2010 
The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

Today's date is 10/10/10.  Woo!  Anywho... now that I've pointed that out, time for today's horror movie recommendation: The Descent: Part 2.  Yes, that is the official title of the film.Whether they actually planned a part 2 before putting out the original, is something I do not know. I would say not, since the film had such an ambiguous ending.  I'm going to go ahead and tell you now, I do not think that Part 2 was anywhere near as good as The Descent.  I liked it; I found it interesting, but I don't think it was as scary or as developed. However, if you can get past certain character stereotypes and small holes, you're good to go!!

So, we start off with a search for the missing girls.  Of course, we all know that the cops and search/rescue team are searching in the wrong caverns.  Oops.  No matter, they'll keep looking by golly.  Meanwhile, in another area of the mountains (we're in the Appalachians, in case you've forgotten), a man driving a truck just misses hitting a deer.  Thank goodness, Bambi's mom lives another day! Oh... wrong movie. Suddenly, a bloody and dirt-covered Sarah steps in front of the truck, bringing the man to a stop.  The sheriff is radioed about the event and he and his deputy (lieutenant? officer?) head over to the hospital to visit her.Yeah... the sheriff is the stereotype I'm referring to, by the way.  Think small town, Appalachian-southern cop, and you have him nailed. Raging idiot.  He bitches that Sarah has been sedated because she was hysterical. So, he forces the doctor to wake her so that he can force her down into the caves to find the rest of her friends.  Yeah, that sounds like a really smart idea.

I am the Sheriff, lady. You will do as I say.... follow the light... that's it... just your eyes... follow the light.... you now believe you are a chicken!

So, they find their way into the caves (Yeah, I'm leaving out a bit. Get over it, I can't write the whole story here.). It's the sheriff, Sarah, his deputy Ellen, and a crew of experienced spelunkers, Dan, Greg, and Cath.  The sheriff clearly does not believe that Sarah is having some memory issues, that something else is down there, or that she had nothing to do with what he finds. Unfortunately, she does not help her case, because when she finally does remember what happened in a series of flashbacks, she kicks him in the face (they are crawling through a tunnel) punches one of the rescuers and flees into one of the tunnels.

Being the idiot that he is, Sheriff Vaines runs into the clearing, asks where she went, and then takes off after her (into the wrong tunnel, mind you).  Then, our good friends the crawlers start showing up. One scares the sheriff and he shoots his gun at it (very smart in a cave) and causes a cave in.  Shock!  Now Cath is in a small space of collapsed rocks, Sarah is hidden in a tunnel, the sheriff is in another tunnel, and Ellen, Dan, and Greg are in the clearing looking around.  Further exploring finds them in a room with a bunch of bones... and a body.  It's Rebecca.  They notice the video camera and watch the film, seeing the women when they were alive before their spelunking up through when they see the crawler that the women saw.  The three of them are then, of course, attacked by a crawler, forcing them to flee and in turn separate.

Yelling does not solve any of our problems. Now hush, and watch them kill your friend.

Ellen shouts for help, and Sarah, undecided as to whether or not to take off, finally decides to help her.  She jumps on her back and holds her hand over her mouth. She whispers that the crawlers track by sound.  Unfortunately, one of the men does find the two of them, but has been loud, and is killed in front of them.  They take off to try and get out of the caves.  Meanwhile, Cath has escaped her rock prison after a crawler came after her and runs into Greg. They flee and are chased by crawlers several times.  They come upon the body of Sam, still hanging from the ceiling and realize they have to use her body to swing across. 

Meanwhile, Sarah and Ellen have evaded the crawlers and gone through some underwater type tunnels, only to realize they can't get out that way. Ellen realizes she may not make it and leaves a message for her daughter on her camera. Sarah uses this to push herself harder and says that they will get out of there.  Before this exchange, we've seen the Sheriff, alive far too long for his level of idiocy, if you ask me, stumbling about the caves. I will give him this: when the crawler comes to attack him, he just off and punches the thing in the face!  Awesome. But now, the crawler is just really pissed.  The crawler jumps on the cop and is about to kill Sheriff Vaines when...
 
Do you see my hair? I am pissed that I have not been able to shower. And just look at my skin... well, actually, that looks good. But dammit, I will kill you anyway!

That's right. Juno is alive.  And she saves the sheriff. The sheriff informs her that he has come with a rescue party to save her (after he realizes he's found Juno, that is).  Juno takes off with the Sheriff behind her.  Sarah and Deputy Ellen are also racing to find an exit. That is when the inevitable happens - the two groups fun into each other. This leads to Juno attempting to kill Sarah.  Which, I mean, I can't really blame her... Sarah injured her and left her to die so she could escape.  At the same time, she did continually screw Sarah's husband and then accidentally stab their friend.  The last part wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't left her there to die slowly and horribly and probably at the hands of the crawlers.  Yeah, Juno, you kind of had it coming.  Anyhoodle...

They realize they have to get out of there. Ellen has calmed Juno down by saying that Sarah came down to help find her... blah, blah.  Juno wants to head out the hole where the crawlers eat while Sarah wants to follow the water. The sheriff, being the moronic jerk he is, handcuffs Sarah to himself and says they will all follow Juno.  I think you can guess why that's a bad idea.  Well, it actually happens in a surprising way.  The sheriff stumbles and falls over a ledge, and Sarah is left hanging on for dear life, screaming.  She begs Juno to help.  Juno does.  She jumps on top of Sarah to hold her down, and she tells Deputy Ellen that she must cut off Sheriff Vaines' hand.  Crawlers start moving up the wall towards him, and Ellen is finally able to get his hand copped off.  He and the crawlers fall while Juno removes his hand from the handcuff and tells the other two that they have to keep moving.

"Damn, you are ugly."  "Who are you calling ugly, vampire-wannabe?! I'll kick your ass. And your mama's!"

The three women arrive at the area where the opening to the outside world is. Unfortunately, there are quite a few crawlers feeding in that room.  They decide that they still have to take the risk, and quietly move towards the exit. Unfortunately, someone is not completely dead, and brings the crawlers down on the women, who must fight them off.  At this point, I am not going to tell you who lives and who dies.  I will say that I truly enjoyed the next few minutes.  I thought it was very well done.  The final moments, eh.  I felt the very end was unnecessary. 

Other than the random final moments and the idiot sheriff, I actually enjoyed the film.  As I said, it was not as tense as the first one, and the story not quite as amazing, but still very good.  I do recommend the film.

Brilliant moment.

Go forth in fear!

No comments:

Post a Comment