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

[BrettGallman]

Sorry for the lack of spoiler tags. I was thinking this was the official discussion thread since it was already out. My apologies once again.

 

[Robert Crawford]

In movie threads in which reviews and discussion are taking place in the same thread, spoiler tags should be utilized in respect to those that might read this thread in order to determine whether they want to see a particular film.




Crawdaddy

 

[Simon Massey]

I have edited my post to use spoilers. I thought once the film was released that spoiler tags were not necessary. Apologies! At what point are spoilers not necessary ?

there seem to be conflicting reports about what exactly the US ending is. Anyone care to explain what happens in spoilers ?

 

[Travis_S]

It just cuts off before the UK version ends. It ends with Sarah seeing Juno next to her in the car and screaming.

 

[Tino]

No it doesn't.

The VERY last shot is of Sarah still in the cave.

 

[Tino]

Any chance we can just make this thread the discussion thread without the need for spoilers, since that is what it basically was? Perhaps someone can start up a review thread.

 

[Tino]

BOTH endings have a very quick shot of Sarah, bloody, still in the cave after she sees Juno in the car. The UK ending just goes on to show her imagining herself and her dead daughter having birthday cake in the cave. The UK ending is just a bit clearer.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now designated the Official Discussion Thread for "The Descent" please, post all comments, links to outside reviews, film and box office discussion items to this thread.

All HTF member film reviews of "The Descent" should be posted to the Official Review Thread.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.


Crawdaddy

 

[Tino]

Cool. Thanks Crawdaddy.

 

[Quentin]

Hmmm...I remember my theatrical viewing being the Juno scare shot in the car, cut to credits. Interesting.

Well, I'm not going to the theater to verify. I now have the DVD with the longer ending.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yeah, my recollection is the Juno "Boo!" scare scene in the car with Sarah, fade out, then the photograph (of all 6 girls before they take off towards the unmapped caves) takes up most of the frame, and then the credit scrolls upwards on the left side of the screen.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Are there any reports of two versions of this out there in the U.S.?

Like others, I really didn't have a clue about the ending but I didn't see anything of Sarah still in the cave. I thought perhaps I had just overlooked this or stood up too quickly to notice this extra shot but this doesn't seem likely to me.

An "illegal item" is making its way around where I work and a lot of people have been watching the film and asking me about the ending. I took a look at this ending again (via this item) and this time I did notice Sarah still in the cave.

I could have swore on my life that this extra shot wasn't in the film when I watched it theatrically and my girlfriend can't remember this cave shot either. In fact, after the film was over we were talking about her living. When I read this thread and heard people talking about her dying, I figured they were just talking about the U.K. ending.

 

[Tino]

It's a VERY quick shot, but there nonetheless. Perhaps a frame or two at most.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Yeah, I just saw this tonight on an imported PAL DVD. And it was really damned good. The one thing that I'm just flashing on right now as I type this is that Sarah kneecapped Juno not just for poking Sarah in the throat, but for fucking her husband. I missed that as Beth and Sarah were talking, somehow, that Beth revealed that secret. I recognized the keychain Beth handed over as belonging to Juno, but for whatever reason, never connected the dots until JUST NOW.

This is a mean, nasty, mostly unrelenting flick. Plausibility be damned that Sarah and Juno became hunter warrior princesses. I went with it due to their adrenaline junkie/thrillseeker nature. If I can go with subterranean psychotic batboys evolved over hundreds of years living under the mountains in New York, I can believe these "extreme sports" ladies can kill at will if pushed to that point.

I was describing this to friends on the web at another board, and said "Okay, imagine that George Romero was SERIOUSLY pissed off and was coked out of his gourd, and asked Oliver Stone to co-direct."

I don't know if that's the most accurate way to describe it, but this thing flat out MOVES when it wants to, and it wanted to a LOT.

 

[Chris Parham]

For those interested, there is a region 4 DVD (Spanish menus) that has the movie in NTSC. There is a DD 5.1 track (no full bit rate DTS like the UK edition) that rocks!
Picture quality is excellent - I don't know if the UK edition suffers from significant PAL speedup, but the R4 played well on my NTSC setup.
Most importantly - it has the original UK ending!
Great flick BTW. If you liked this, you should try CREEP - another great UK horror movie.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I just came back from seeing this at the drive-in. I'm assuming it was just a blow-up of the US theatrical print. Tino is right. The last shot is of a close-up on her face, still in the cave. I'd say it hangs on the screen a good second or so before a cut to the photograph with credits. No birthcake ending, though.

 

[JonZ]

What a swell movie.

IMHO, Alot better than Hostel and Saw

 

[WillG]

Ok, I Netflixed this last night and watched it, but have already returned it. Question: I didn't have any idea that Juno had an affair with Sarah's husband until reading this thread. I'm trying to recollect this plot point. I guess now it makes more sense that Sarah slashed Juno's knee and left her to die. I thought that was somewhat of a stretch for her to do that without giving any chance for explanation. Of course this was assuming that Sarah was doing it because of Juno killing the other girl. I guess I can gather some of the pieces such as Sarah commenting that her husband appeared "distant" at the beginning of the film. Also, there is the suggestion of Juno being sexually agressive early on i the film. What did I miss though? Something about the key chain? Can anyone explain this to me?

Good movie otherwise. All I could say during the tight tunnel crawling scenes was "Fuck That!" And then Sarah actually does get stuck which really freaked me out. That alone was worth the price of admission.

I thought some of the shots were great as well. The one where they are walking though a passage and a shot of a monsters hanging above was illuminated was great...very "Halloween"

Although for the monsters....I'm never opposed to keeping "alien" antagonists somewhat ambigous, I can't help but feeling I would have liked a few more clues as to who there were. I guess the assumption is that they once may have been human who evolved into this darkness living extremely feral state?

Also, on the R1 unrated DVD, are we seeing the original UK ending? It is consistent with what is being discussed in this thread.

 

[Quentin]

The unrated DVD does have the UK/original ending - that is, the birthday cake/loses her mind scene.

Clues to the affair: she acts weird around Paul early, she leaves early, Paul is distant before the crash...and, the coup de grace IS the necklace. It is on Juno's neck and it is engraved: Love Each Day. That is clearly noted earlier as Paul's 'saying'. Thus, he gave it to Juno - inferring an intimate relationship.

I don't think she was too happy about leaving her friend to die either.

 

[RickER]

Robert i didnt see them as evolving over just 100s of years, but having been from the start of man. My theory is they were once cavemen, hence the painting on the walls from a time that they could still see. They are still a secret because they kill anything that might find the caves. They must leave the cave at night to hunt because i assume they had killed the elk but left it for some reason.