At the Movies

by Esther McCarthy

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A DESCENT IN 2 DARKNESS

Gory sequel doesn't live up to original

GOREFEST: Juno in The Descent: Part 2THE DESCENT: PART 2 (18) starstarstar

THE STARS: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Krysten Cummings.

THE STORY: Set immediately after the first movie, Sarah (MacDonald) is forced back into the Appalachian cave system where previous horrors unfolded to help find her missing pals.

LAST WEEK'S Paranormal Activity shone because it was subtle in how it depicted the horror of a spook in a middle-class home running riot.

Knowing that your imagination can be scarier than anything you see. If the 'less is more' idea was what made that movie so effective, The Descent: Part 2 is a different monster altogether.

This marks a big return to the gorefest that most modern horror flicks embrace. There are numerous bloody attacks, hacked off limbs and - in one particularly- nasty scene - a female being eaten alive by rats. Not my cuppa at all then, but there's no denying that if violent thrillers are your thing, this movie is a reasonably-effective terror flick.

A follow up to the successful lowbudget horror hit The Descent, this sees Neil Marshall, the director of that film (and other gory films like Dog Soldiers and gruesome Doomsday ) turns producer this time. The movie kicks off shortly after the last one ended, with survivor Sarah Carter emerging from the cave where she went on an underground expedition with her friends, covered in blood
and speechless with trauma.

This raises the suspicions of the emergency services, particularly a tough sheriff who thinks that Sarah knows more about her friends' fate than she's letting on. Desperate to save the five missing girls, the rescuers force Sarah to go back underground with
them to find where they're located.

Flashbacks

SPOOKED: Cath hangs in belowTo complicate matters, Sarah is so traumatised by earlier events that she's unable to fully recall the details of what happened. As the nervous team move deeper and deeper into the caves, Sarah gets flashbacks about the full horror of what lies beneath - but by then it's too late.

The Crawlers - a band of monsters that eat humans for breakfast - are looking forward to some bonus snacks. Sarah and the rescue team, some of them savvy, some not, must use their wits to get back to safety. Suffice to say that bodies start dropping fast and frequently and not in a pretty way.

The folks in this movie's blood and guts department were kept very busy indeed. Still, debut director Jon Harris - taking over from Marshall here - does a good job at cranking up the tension and making the most out of a pretty slight story.

There are plenty of genuinely- spooky moments, and enough bodies get mushed to make The Simpsons' Itchy & Scratchy look like Bambi. But this feels like a remake of the first film rather than a follow up as there's little new on offer here - same frights, different
characters.

For the many fans this will be just enough.

THE VERDICT:

Gory and violent, this doesn't live up to the first movie but the claustrophobic setting is used well and the cast, especially MacDonald, help crank up the tension.

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