With the producers making no secret the conception of The Descent: Part 2 was purely on the back of the box office and critical success of Neil Marshall’s original, you’d be forgiven for worrying this would be just another sequel to cash in on the good name of a surprise hit.
The film picks up shortly after the 2005 horror with one of the friends stranded the Appalachian caves somehow escaping the demonic creature-ridden tunnels, but despite being overwrought by the harassing experience, Sarah (Macdonald) is instead forced back below ground by the local sheriff Veines (O’Herlihy) to help out with the search mission. Sure enough the rescuers become trapped themselves and as the group split up, have to fight off the humanoid crawlers once more.
After editing The Descent, Jon Harris now turns director and sticks closely to the atmosphere and creative direction on Part 2. Though his offering doesn’t give anything especially new, it is an ample addition to the original. Harris’ film bring the crawlers further into the fore with more intense attack sequences but pulls it off as more of a full-on thrill ride.
Certainly not as good as the first film in terms of plot and creativity, The Descent: Part 2 is still packed with edge of your seat scares despite relying on the same tricks over and over again. The character side of the film isn’t quite as effectively introduced but that doesn’t detract from the overall experience
You won’t be missing anything spectacular if you don’t catch The Descent: Part 2, for horror fans and those who enjoyed the original, however, it’s definitely worth a go and with an excellent twist at the end, there might just be a third in the series in the pipeline greeted with less scepticism than this sequel.
★★★★★