Director: Jon Harris
Writer: James McCarthy, J Blakeson, James Watkins (Screenplay)
Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Michael J Reynolds, Douglas Hodge, Josh Dallas, Anna Skellern, Gavan O’Herlihy
Plot: Refusing to believe her story about cave-dwelling monsters, the sole survivor of a spelunking exploration gone horribly wrong is forced to follow the authorities back into the caves where something awaits.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Forced Sequel
Story: The Descent Part 2 starts as we learn about the search party looking for the girls in the wrong cave off course because of Juno’s decision in the first film. Sarah (Macdonald) has escaped from the cave finding herself in hospital as Vaines (O’Herlihy) leads the police investigation into what happened.
Learning about the new location Vaines along with his rookie partner Ellen (Cummings) calls upon rescue team Dan (Hodge), Gregg (Dalls) and Cath (Skellern) as they take Sarah back into the cave system to find the missing girls because Sarah can’t remember the last two days.
The Descent Part 2 feels very much like a forced sequel to the brilliant original, the problems start early on this one because we have a couple of different endings from the first one. We then have bad decision making from the experienced characters and a final twist that is built for franchise in the future. If you look past most of this you do get plenty of scenes that are designed to have a bloodiest possible kills happening which takes away most of the tension the film needs. I do feel this is a huge step down from the original even if it is set straight after the original.
Actor Review
Shauna Macdonald: Sarah freshly escaped from the cave has no memory of her time in the cave system but with her friends still missing Sheriff Vaines takes her back into the caves to find her missing friends. Sarah once remembering what happened must guide this team in battle against the creatures in the cave. Shauna returns and does a solid job in this role.
Krysten Cummings: Ellen is a rookie cop that gets bought into the case to try and help Sarah through her memory loss, she has to reluctantly go into the cave system with the team to find out what happened. Krysten is good in this role as we see a character that Sarah can relate too.
Douglas Hodge: Dan is the lead rescue climber that takes his team into the cave system, he is a safe caver and tries to keep calm through any situation his team find themselves in, but he isn’t prepared for what is within the caves waiting for them. Douglas is strong as the leader but a true climber would never take this chance of inexperienced climbers in an uncharted cave.
Gavan O’Herlihy: Sheriff Vaines is leading the search for the missing girls and once Sarah is discovered he believes she knows more than she is letting on, forcing her to go back into the caves to remember what happened to her friends. Gavan plays your typical character who shouldn’t be in the location well.
Support Cast: The Descent Part 2 has a supporting cast that includes a couple of extra climbers but as the big surprise we get a fellow survivor that Sarah thought was dead. The issue with this supporting cast is that it doesn’t feel as natural as the first film.
Director Review: Jon Harris – Jon does a solid job with this sequel which does have good kills but does have a few issues with character decisions.
Adventure: The Descent Part 2 doesn’t have the sense of adventure the first film has as this is more of the rescue mission.
Horror: The Descent Part 2 has a few jump scares but not as effective as the first film but does go slightly heavier on the gore.
Thriller: The Descent Part 2 fails to keep us fully on edge because of the false endings in the first ending doesn’t really make us care about these disposable characters this time around.
Settings: The Descent Part 2 does take us back into the cave system which does work to the advantage of the film.
Special Effects: The Descent Part 2 goes very heavy on the practical effects as the film looks for the most brutal kills on either side of the fight.
Suggestion: The Descent Part 2 is one to try, if you did enjoy the first one which I do think you should have this will get what you need out of it. (Try It)
Best Part: Some of the kills are brutal.
Worst Part: The film does focus too much on creating a unique kill too much rather than tension.
Believability: No
Chances of Tears: No
Chances of Sequel: No
Post Credits Scene: No
Oscar Chances: No
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
Tagline: Fear runs deep. Revenge runs deeper.
Overall: Sequel that lacks that bit of overall direction as to character decisions.
Rating
