Picking up where it left off (depending on which version you saw), whilst a rescue team hunts for the six friends who went missing after setting off on a caving expedition two days earlier, a bruised and bloody Sarah stumbles across a local hick who alerts the authorities. Traumatised and confused, Sarah has blanked out her memory of the past two days. In a move which even the film’s director acknowledges as a stretch, hard ass Sheriff Vaines decides that Sarah is going to go back into the cave system with the rescue team to hopefully jog her memory and find her friends in the process. They find her friends alright…what’s left of them anyway. It isn’t long before the team finds themselves at the bottom of the food chain.
I was concerned about this film as The Descent was one of the most original and terrifying genre efforts of the last decade. Thankfully, all involved have helped make this a fine continuation of the story.
The cast are good here with new girls Anna Skellern and Krysten Cummings standing out immediately. O’Herlihy is well cast as the ignorant arse you want to die first and the rest of the guys are similarly well cast.
More plus points go to the set design which is both stunning and chilling, as are our old friends The Crawlers and there are some well realised set pieces here too, such as the moment one unfortunate soul finds herself trapped in a cave in with a Crawler digging underneath to reach her like a dog after a bone.
OVERALL SUMMARY
For me, this sequel didn’t ruin anything about the first film so I was incredibly relieved. It was never going to make as much of an impact but it was incredibly entertaining and had lots of surprises. A good effort by all involved.
