Post by james on May 22, 2010 9:30:03 GMT -5
The Descent 2 opens with a Kentucky truck driver (or hunter - it's never explained what he does, except live in the area) almost runs his pickup into a deer. After that close call, the (all too predictable) jump scare follows. This sets the tone for the rest of the film, which alternates between not-very-surprising cuts and jumps intended to frighten the audience, and gory scenes cynically calculated to target the deep-red audience.
The plot is simple, but doesn't make much sense. Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), the only survivor of the first film*, is forced by the local sheriff (and a reluctant deputy) to join them and a rescue team in a trip back into the Kentucky caverns of The Descent (as in the original, the locations here are all actually in the British isles). The sequel is set two days after the end of the first, with Sarah not only in a near-catatonic state, but also covered in blood that tests reveal isn't hers. This makes the premise very implausible. There's a throwaway line indicating that Juno (another character from the first film) is the daughter of a senator, and therefore the pressure is on the local law enforcement to find the cave-exploring friends from the first film (or one of them, anyway). But I still find it hard to accept the idea that the sheriff (Gavin O'Herlihy, one of the two Chuck Cunninghams from the first season of the television show Happy Days) would force her underground as part of the rescue party in such a short amount of time, given the state she's in.
Anyway, the story chugs along, basically repeating some of the best scenes from the original, only not very well. Some members of the horror fan community have been heaping venom on this sequel. I didn't have the energy to hate it, but it's pretty bad. For the first two thirds, I thought it was tolerable - not good, but not egregiously terrible either. Mostly, it works as a retread of some of the key scenes of the original, with a particularly weak script**. In the last third, though, The Descent 2 enters a truly noxious and cynical direction, with a final scene that is particularly offensive. Unlike the original, this one is calculated to appeal to the gorehound crowd - once I realized that, none of the "surprises" in the film surprised me one bit. There's a real heartlessness here that betrays the survival spirit of the original.
Minor Spoiler Alert
* You can debate whether Sarah even survived the first film, depending on which version you watched - the U.S. cut, or the longer version offered to the rest of the world. The sequel cynically has it both ways - there is a third act "surprise" that is keyed into the scene that ended the U.S. cut, and in one early scene Sarah, in a delirium, recounts the final scene of the longer version. That's how calculates this film is - it offers you two options .
** Here are some examples of the weakness of the script. When the rescue party is about to enter the caves, the leader of a cave exploration group asks the sheriff why he's taking his gun, as they are on a rescue mission. Well, yeah, except as a cop on duty, he's required to take his gun, and Sarah was found with someone else's blood on her clothes - she's a suspect in the disappearances. Later, Rios (the deputy sheriff, played by Krysten Cummings) apologizes to Sarah for "not believing her" when they first encounter the cave dwellers from the original film. But Sarah never explains what happened to her and her friends in these caves, so what didn't Rios believe, exactly?
The plot is simple, but doesn't make much sense. Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), the only survivor of the first film*, is forced by the local sheriff (and a reluctant deputy) to join them and a rescue team in a trip back into the Kentucky caverns of The Descent (as in the original, the locations here are all actually in the British isles). The sequel is set two days after the end of the first, with Sarah not only in a near-catatonic state, but also covered in blood that tests reveal isn't hers. This makes the premise very implausible. There's a throwaway line indicating that Juno (another character from the first film) is the daughter of a senator, and therefore the pressure is on the local law enforcement to find the cave-exploring friends from the first film (or one of them, anyway). But I still find it hard to accept the idea that the sheriff (Gavin O'Herlihy, one of the two Chuck Cunninghams from the first season of the television show Happy Days) would force her underground as part of the rescue party in such a short amount of time, given the state she's in.
Anyway, the story chugs along, basically repeating some of the best scenes from the original, only not very well. Some members of the horror fan community have been heaping venom on this sequel. I didn't have the energy to hate it, but it's pretty bad. For the first two thirds, I thought it was tolerable - not good, but not egregiously terrible either. Mostly, it works as a retread of some of the key scenes of the original, with a particularly weak script**. In the last third, though, The Descent 2 enters a truly noxious and cynical direction, with a final scene that is particularly offensive. Unlike the original, this one is calculated to appeal to the gorehound crowd - once I realized that, none of the "surprises" in the film surprised me one bit. There's a real heartlessness here that betrays the survival spirit of the original.
Minor Spoiler Alert
* You can debate whether Sarah even survived the first film, depending on which version you watched - the U.S. cut, or the longer version offered to the rest of the world. The sequel cynically has it both ways - there is a third act "surprise" that is keyed into the scene that ended the U.S. cut, and in one early scene Sarah, in a delirium, recounts the final scene of the longer version. That's how calculates this film is - it offers you two options .
** Here are some examples of the weakness of the script. When the rescue party is about to enter the caves, the leader of a cave exploration group asks the sheriff why he's taking his gun, as they are on a rescue mission. Well, yeah, except as a cop on duty, he's required to take his gun, and Sarah was found with someone else's blood on her clothes - she's a suspect in the disappearances. Later, Rios (the deputy sheriff, played by Krysten Cummings) apologizes to Sarah for "not believing her" when they first encounter the cave dwellers from the original film. But Sarah never explains what happened to her and her friends in these caves, so what didn't Rios believe, exactly?