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The Descent | 2006 | R | - 3.10.9

Spelunking horror film about a group of girlfriends who plan a caving expedition, hoping that the diversion will help one of them recover from the death of her husband and daughter. But it turns out that the cave they have chosen to explore is unmapped, and it is inhabited by a hungry species of humans who have evolved for life underground. With Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder and Nora-Jane Noone. [1:39]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A female cave person's bare breasts (no nipples are discernable) are visible in one scene. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage.
 We understand that a woman has had a sexual affair with another woman's husband. A woman makes a joke about giving a lemon an orgasm.

VIOLENCE/GORE 10 - Cave people are human underground dwellers who have lost the ability to see, their skin is pale white, they snarl and make animal noises and their teeth are pointed.
 A cave man stands behind a woman, then skitters across the ceiling of the cave, we hear noises and screams, and one woman is attacked by the cave person, who bites out her throat (she writhes and blood sprays). A cave person grabs a woman by the feet, he drags her back into the darkness, he tears open her abdomen and feeds on her intestines while the woman screams and thrashes -- until the cave person tears out her throat.
 A woman runs through a dark cave, she tries to climb across a rock ceiling over a deep crevasse, her hands are badly cut and bloody, a cave person lunges at her, her throat is slashed (blood spurts), she fights with the cave person knocking him off into the crevasse and the woman hangs dead from a rope around her waist.
 A woman wakes up in a cave filled with human remains and skeletons, she hears a noise, a body is thrown into the cave and many cave people come to feed on it (we see blood spraying as they tug at the body and pull out internal organs).
 
 A head-on collision leaves a man and a girl dead when copper piping from the other vehicle crashes through their windshield and through the head of the man (we hear a crunch and see the piping pass through his head and the car's headrest); we do not see the girl's injury but hear that she died.
 A woman opens another woman's pant leg and reveals a large bloody opening in her leg and part of the bone is broken and sticking out; the other woman pushes the bone back into the leg (the injured woman screams and twitches and we hear squishing), and then wraps it with bandages. A woman runs through a dark cave, she falls into a hole, slams into a rock formation, hits the ground hard and we see that she has broken her leg badly (a bloody piece of bone protrudes through torn pants, just below her knee).
 Two women enter a cave where many cave people are gathered, the women are attacked, they fight back killing many of the cave people with spelunking gear and by banging their heads against rocks, and one plunges her fingers deep into the eyes of a cave person (blood sprays and pours and spurts). A cave person tries to drag away the body of a woman, another woman fights with him, she strikes him several times, he bleeds, tries to bite her, and she stabs him in the chest repeatedly.
 A cave person attacks a woman, she fights with her and stabs her in the eye with a spike. A woman falls into water where she is attacked by a cave person and the woman stabs him (blood spreads in the water). A cave person attacks a woman and tries to bite her, she pushes him off and kicks him repeatedly, killing him (we hear crunching). A cave person attacks a woman, who swings at him with a pick, and another woman hits him from behind and then breaks his neck. A woman beats a cave person in the head until his skull is crushed.
 A woman swings a weapon around and behind her and strikes another woman in the throat; the woman gurgles and falls to the ground, and blood pours and spurts from the wound. A woman crushes a wounded woman's skull with a large rock.
 A woman is stabbed through the leg with spelunking gear and is unable to run; she is surrounded by cave people, and we hear her screaming. A woman runs through a dark cave and stumbles into a puddle of blood (she comes out of the puddle soaked in blood). A woman climbing across a tether over a deep chasm falls, the rigging breaks loose, she slams into a wall, and a woman who tries to grab the tether is severely injured (her hand is cut open and we see tissue and blood pouring); the woman is pulled up and is OK.
 A woman pulls things from the dead body of a woman (she is blood soaked) in order to build a torch. Birds peck at a dead deer (we see blood and maggots wriggling on the carcass). A woman discovers a part of a cave filled with animal bones. A woman has a nightmare that a copper pipe crashes through a cabin window and pierces her through the head.
 A woman climbing through a very narrow passageway becomes stuck and panics, another woman goes back in to help her through, they hear rumbling and the cave begins to collapse on them, but they manage to get out just in time.
 There are a couple of scenes where women try to hide from cave people who come very close to them and even touch them as they pass by, but remain undiscovered. A woman finds a cave person drinking water, she shines her light on it, it turns toward her and it snarls. A woman is swarmed by many bats, and she screams and thrashes around.
 We see a dark form, hear snarling and see slime drooling from what could be a mouth; several women are gathered in a dark cave. We hear noises and what sounds like snarling in dark caves where women are spelunking.
 A woman in a hospital pulls off her monitors and IVs, runs through a hallway, the lights begin switching off behind her, she cries for her daughter and collapses in the arms of a friend, who tells her that her daughter died.
 A woman, trying to secure a line for other women to climb across, dangles from one hand, high over a precipice, while attaching the spelunking rigging. A woman climbs through a dark and very narrow passageway, goes under water and then up through another passageway. Three women whitewater raft over rough water, and they nearly tip over.
 A woman drives fast and recklessly along a road, she pulls over, is nearly struck by a passing truck and she vomits out of the window.
 A woman is startled when she sits up and sees another woman next to her. A woman hears a child laughing inside a very dark cave in several scenes. A woman pushes another woman into apparently frigid water (she seems to be joking).

LANGUAGE 9 - 44 F-words, 14 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (selfish cow), 14 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - Two women smoke marijuana. Women drink beer. A woman smokes a cigarette. A woman takes a prescription pill. A woman makes a remark about "getting wasted."

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Spelunking, claustrophobia, grief, loss, death of a spouse, death of a child, infidelity, friendship, love, adventure, trust.

MESSAGE - Some places should be left unexplored.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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