THE DESCENT 2 REVIEW

***Spoiler Alert***

  Before watching this movie, I figured that it would be hard to beat the original because so many people really enjoyed it. It turned out to be a good movie, but I had a minor problem with it here and there. Also, I am not completely happy with how similar some of the situations were to the original. So let’s see how this one measured up.

  The story picked up a couple of days after the events that took place in the original. There was a search going on for the 6 women when the sheriff received a call about one of the survivors ending up at a local hospital. He told them to keep this quiet until a fellow female officer, deputy Elen Rios, and himself could make it down there. Once they got there, they found Sarah, the sole survivor, battered, bruised, and she had completely forgotten about the traumatic experience she had been through. The sheriff decided that they should investigate the cave that Sarah apparently came out of. He ordered that Sarah, whom he wasn’t convinced didn’t have something to do with why the women were missing, accompany Elen, three cave divers, and him into the cave. That was where all the cave monster fun began.

  I usually like when sequels pick up where the original left off. It keeps the story moving, and you don’t feel like you have missed anything in between the two storylines. However, this created a minor problem to start off with. They brought Sarah back because she was the only survivor. Fine, that was understandable because this was a continuing story, and they wanted to have a character that the audience could relate with. What I didn’t like was that they dragged her back into the cave so easily. How could the sheriff overrule any sound medical advice by allowing her to go back into the cave? Wait a minute; there weren’t many doctors around except for one brief conversation before they even decided to go back to the cave. Add that to memory loss, and you get Sarah ready to go cave diving again. All right, I will let it go. They needed her to go back, and it actually worked out once she got her memory back.

  Who wants to talk about the crawlers? That’s what I thought. Yes, they were back to create more havoc in the cave. One of the ways they liked to kill their victims was to go after the victim’s neck. The neck equaled blood, which we saw plenty of. In one scene, a crawler attacked a cave diver, where the diver put his hand up to defend himself. That wasn’t a good idea because the crawler bit off several of his fingers, also a good way to create plenty of blood. Then, came the fatal bite to the neck. Also, the crawlers created a couple of scares. A good scare was when one of the divers was trapped between some rocks, and one of the crawlers was stalking its newfound prey. It is so funny how one minute she was trapped and couldn’t get out, but with a little motivation from the crawl, out she went. If you thought the crawlers couldn’t get more disgusting, you may have thought wrong. It was disgusting when one of them drooled on this woman’s hand, but that was nothing compared to when one of them took defecated into the water that two people were in.

  Before I start complaining about the similarities between the two movies, there was one thing that I really liked besides the crawlers. They didn’t ignore the fact that the women from the original died in the cave. The group ran into a couple of the bodies in their journey. They found one of the women lying against a wall. They thought that she might still be alive because her mouth was moving, but that was only because a rat came out of it. That was completely nasty. By the way, why don’t the crawlers eat the rats? In another scene, they found the woman that died hanging from the top of the cave. Her body had become an obstacle that helped lead to a pretty cool scene.

 

****Spoiler Alert: my complaining gives away 2 small twists and the ending of the movie. You are probably better off if you don’t know (sorry).

 

  Even though I liked the movie, I just was not totally comfortable with a couple of things. First, I call bullshit on the fact that Juno was still alive. I don’t care what explanation she gave for how she survived, there was no way she survived the attack at the end of the original. She was completely surrounded by the crawlers, and was injured to top it off. If you believe that she survived, it takes a little away from the dramatic ending in the original. On the hand, her survival made for an interesting turn of events. Immediately, it made you want to see a face off between Sarah, and her.

  Then there were the constant similarities between this movie, and the original. I’m still not completely sure how I feel about, and am actually surprised I haven’t heard any complaints about it. They set up some interesting situations, but did it by almost repeating what happened in the original. This was especially present at the end of the movie. Sarah was faced with the decision to leave Juno behind again and ensure her survival, or risk death and save her. Not long after that, she again faced the same decision with Elen. Speaking of Elen, you could see how she had done away with many of her fears just as Sarah had done in the original. She had to turn her back on a friend, learn to fight off the crawlers, and then escape the cave with Sarah being the decoy much like Juno was in the original. Even when she escaped the cave, you see her reach out dramatically fighting her way out like Sarah previously did. Besides the similarities, it was interesting because you saw Sarah and Juno face off, and then watched their friendship come full circle. 

  The final ending of the movie was actually pretty depressing. You think that Elen had made it, and was going to be reunited with her daughter. Sarah, had redeemed herself from what some people would say was a very selfish act at the end of the original, and went out a hero. Or maybe she was alive; hell, Juno survived a similar attack. Then, they had to go and pull a Lake Placid on you. Did anyone see that coming? There was something fishy about that guy when they were getting on the elevator. If you think about it, that actually makes sense because it was not like many deer were going cave diving.

  After writing this, I guess I was a little more annoyed with certain things than I thought. Regardless of that, I still think it was a good movie. The movie brought back a character you were familiar with, and completed her story. It continued with the scares, blood, and killing that the crawlers provided. Then, they added a few small twists to make things interesting, and complete the overall story. Putting my complaints aside, I give this movie 3 pools of blood.