*** Official THE DESCENT Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Josh.C]

I've made the same commitment Rich. With the SDVD players out there now that up-convert to 1080i & 1080p (I have found as low as $89.00) there's no reason to get in a hurry. The war will be over soon enough, and prices will be coming wayyyyy down on the HD stuff.

JC

 

[Rich Malloy]

I'm hoping to get an Oppo 981-HD soon, and am only waiting for firmware upgrades to shake out and hopefully resolve a few remaining HDCP "handshake" problems. This will hopefully be my last ever standard-def DVD player, and it seems like it's capable of doing everything I need it to do. It's an all-region Faroudja-based player that will upscale SD-DVDs to 1080p, as well as do PAL>NTSC conversion, and play DVD-As and SACDs (although it converts SACD to PCM). That'll replace both of my current DVD players (a Panny NTSC-upscaler and a Tosh PAL-converter), but I plan to keep my Sony 555ES for SACD/CD. That should hopefully carry me through the next year or so, or whenever the hi-def format wars are resolved.

Sorry for the off-topic tangent, Descent-lovers! Back to the movie....

 

[Tim Glover]

Ok. I watched this earlier this evening. Let me set this up in that this genre of film is just not my thing. I tend to favor other kinds of films over being frightened to death. I'm a wuss.

I enjoyed What Lies Beneath alot...but it took me a few years to finish it. ....Did I mention I'm a wuss? So it's quite an event when I get the inkling to see something like this.

The Descent was good though. Somewhat predictable but gosh I sure thought Sarah did indeed get out until the very last shot. The crawlers were pretty cool even though they reminded me of a buffed up and very pissed off Gollum Still the fact they were kind of blind and reacted to sound was cool and that alone set up some frightening moments. Having to crawl through the tiny caves was scary enough without the Crawlers!

The scenes with Juno & Sarah kicking some crawler ass was rather cool. It really was and I was glued.

I'm sure this was fun in the theater.

I give it 8/10.

 

[Quentin]

I have the Oppo 971H, and it RULES! So, I would suggest you get that. Do you have a 1080P TV? Did you know 1080P is not 24fps (like 1080i) and only HDDVD's support 1080p24?

Even then...you need a quality HD DVD player, a great transfer, and 1080p24 support on the DVD, and a 1080p player to get a picture that is better than 1080i. And, IMHO, it is minimally better when compared side to side.

Just go 1080i with a proven unit and start enjoying the region-free world now. It's a lot of fun. And, if you don't have an upconverting player now, you will notice a nice difference in PQ.

 

[Phil Florian]

I just saw this a week ago and am finding this discussion very interesting. I like the idea that Sarah is nuts and imagined the whole thing. Here's the way that works...there was no camcorder or crawlers over the ladies or any of that...if this is Sarah's POV (not literally out of camera, but the story) then it could look any way she likes. She might have gone down, killed everyone and wandered around aimlessly seeing things as she imagined ways that they might have been killed other than her doing it. But if you don't take it that way, then sure, it won't work. It doesn't have a SIXTH SENSE sort of look where you can go back and watch it with new appreciation for use of camera, angles and how actors interacted (or didn't interact) to see the "clues." It either happened all in her mind or it didn't. In fact, there might not be a cave and she is still in the hospital. Cheesy but as noted DESCENT has multiple meanings.

I have the R1 director's edition and it is a fun disc. Check out the Behind the Scenes documentary. Many DVD's have cheesy and self-promoting material but this, while not as long as the LOTR background discs, still got fairly in depth (pun? Nah.) into the process of putting this together. The best part was that the actors never saw a crawler in costume before they were on stage for their first scenes together. Better yet, they had some crawlers kicking around the set in the backgrounds in some scenes (off camera) every once and a while so they might get a peek but not be sure of what they saw. Very fun! Seemed like a neat journey for the actors as well as the story tellers.

I liked the idea that the crawlers were real and it works very well on this level. There is a lot of little fun clues about life down there with the death room, the birthing room, a fishing hole...all the comforts of home. Then we have the old caving helmet, the cave drawings, chalk mark arrows on the wall (did they leave those or were they from previous cavers??). Just a neat environment.

For those that saw THE CAVE, how do these movies compare? I read that DESCENT was filmed almost entirely on soundstage (making-of doc shows a lot of this) while THE CAVE was actually filmed on location. I wonder if this made a difference. Was it lit the same? DECSENT did a great job using natural lighting as much as possible, cheating (if you can call it that) at times to not be totally crazy but used enough black to let us know how dark REAL darkness can be.

Anyway, fantastic movie and great DVD.

 

[MarkMel]

I watched no started to watch the cave several time and fell asleep each time. So not comparison as I could even get through it.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Netflixed the Blu-Ray this weekend. I had enjoyed Dog Soldiers, but I wasn't a huge fan. I did enjoy the film, as the subtleties came through loud and clear. It was evident from the first scene that Juno was banging Sarah's husband. The film NEVER got explicit on that, but I don't think it needed to.

What it did best was a set a mood. Better than average horror film, and I'll be happy to see Marshall's next film.

Regarding the other interpretation, you don't have to PICK one! It works whichever way you like. When you go nuts, you can get away with some sketchy point of view concepts. Now, if a crawler had been at the hospital...then it would have been set in stone. So smart move to delete that scene

Thanks for the thorough rundown, Rich.

 

[Josh.C]

So, what is your rating Chuck?

I'll go search the 2007 film tracking thread to see if you already listed it.

JC

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I didn't, Josh. I don't see enough to play

I'd give it 8/10. I have a soft spot for scary movies sometimes...

 

[Josh.C]

I completely understand. I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest the past 2 weeks, and it hasn't allowed me to endulge in one of my many hobbies, namely movie watching.

I also have a soft spot for scary movies, and wish they would make more "quality" films, as it appears the genre goes more for "quantity". Most of them are slightly below crap, however I really enjoyed the Decent, and have already added it to my collection.

8.5/10 for me, and I really need to watch it again.

JC

 

[Lucia Duran]

While I did not enjoy the film at all ( no knowledge of two different endings), I did enjoy the gag reel. Seeing bat boy dancing was hilarious!

 

[Steve Felix]

I saw it the other day with what I believe is the original ending (with the torch/cake). Being startled just annoys me, so I wasn't into it until the end, when I realized how deeply it was about losing a kid and not being able to overcome it.

My impression is that the entire trip was, if not necessarily imagined by Sarah, an allegory for her downward spiral. The caves were her personal hell and the movie is the story of her becoming a crawler and joining others who suffered unimaginable tragedy.

That sort of reconciles your observations, Rich, with the acknowledged conflicts. Sarah's connections with crawlers could be hinting the future as opposed to the present.

 

[Malcolm R]

and it ended up turning an enjoyable film, up to that point, into one of my most hated theatrical experiences ever.

There were some similarities to "The Cave," but I think "The Descent" was much better executed.

What is with the low-level dialogue mix in UK films? You have to crank the volume so high to hear the dialogue that you get blasted out of your seat with any kind of music or sound effects. I had the same peeve with "Layer Cake."

Also, was was the OAR? I had my projector set to 16:9 but everyone looked squashed. So I set it to 1:1, which seemed to result in normal looking people but with an AR of about 1.66.

And on the DVD I rented at least, the end of the film was Sarah driving away, the sudden appearance of Juno in the car next to her, cut to credits. There was no shot of her still in the cave.

 

[RickER]

Malcolm, you need to see the Unrated Cut to see the original UK ending. You rented the US version.
Oh, and the US version release has a foolscreen version out, while the Uncut was widescreen.

 

[Tino]

I have the BR version and I watched the unrated cut and I noticed that the last shot of Sarah bloody and still in the cave was removed for the video release. You can still see the original US ending version, which had this shot, in the supplements as the director shows both versions.

Maybe he had second thoughts about the last shot of the US theatrical version and removed it for this relese but it WAS there as is shown in the supplements.