Clostrophobic Survival Horror On Tubi is a Modern Monster Classic

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 31 seconds ago

A funny thing happens when you watch enough horror movies: ironically, it becomes harder and harder to find a movie that true scares you. That’s because so few horror films have truly original ideas behind them, and far too many modern horror films disappear into a self-congratulatory miasma of Whedonesque references and cute quips. Luckily, there’s one scary modern monster classic you can stream for free: The Descentavailable now on Tubi.

The Descent into Horror

Even by horror standards, The Descent It has a simpler narrative, focusing on the misadventures of a group of women who decide to go peeing in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Maybe the journey is just the thing to take our protagonist’s mind off the grief she is still processing from the tragic loss of her husband and daughter the previous year, but things go sideways when everyone ends up in a system unknown caves. But soon everyone has much more than trauma and getting lost to worry about when they run afoul of hideous goblin-like creatures waiting to kill anything they can get their claws on.

Part of what makes The Descent interesting as a horror film is that (apart from the “monstrous crawlers”) they are all played by women. This includes Shauna Macdonald (best known for the TV show Spooks) and Natalie Mendoza (best known for the TV show Hotel Babylon). The film also stars Alex Reid (previously known for the TV show Ultimate Power), MyAnna Buring (best known for appearing in the Twilight films and the Witcher series).

From the point of view of the box office, The Descent is one of those horror movies that was made on a relatively small budget and brought in some big profits (compared to its cost). The film was produced on an estimated budget of £3.5 million (or just over $4.3 million) and brought in a monster-sized $57.1 million at the box office. This was enough to warrant a sequel, but The Descent 2 it ended up being a critical and commercial flop.

Fortunately, the original film is beloved by critics and audiences alike. Ar Rotten tomatoes, The Descent It has a critical score of 87 percent, with critics generally praising the film’s strong performances and its highly claustrophobic tone. Via the Popcornmeter, the film also has an audience rating of 76 percent, proving that this is not one of those horror films that critics love and audiences despite (like almost all “elevated horror” films “).

Serious Nightmares

As for me, I loved The Descent for many of the same reasons… the all female cast may sound like a pander, but that was done to separate this film from other horror films (such as director Neil Marshall’s earlier film Dog Soldiers). Throughout the film, the characters really feel like friends whose bonds are constantly tested by the extraordinary situation in which they find themselves. Also, although these aren’t exactly household names, each character comes across as unique thanks to the cast’s creative performances. .

But the real reason to watch The Descent is that it’s genuinely scary and manages to create terrifying scares by refining a few classic horror formulas into something that feels exciting and new. We have characters who are trapped, but in a cave in the mountains rather than a cabin in the woods; we have monsters that look like Gollum’s third cousin, but they are treated with deadly seriousness. Throw in the scary beginning and the bleak ending (especially on the unrated version) and you’ve got a film that’s guaranteed to haunt you… one that I wouldn’t really recommend trying to watch before bed unless it’s because you’re ready for some serious nightmares.

Will you find The Descent as nail-biting as I did, or is this the movie you’d rather throw into an unexplored cave system? You won’t know until you risk it for yourself. Once this claustrophobic classic gets inside you, however, be warned… you won’t be able to look away and you’ll never forget what you see.