The Descent

Pete Worrall • December 13, 2018

A bunch of morons go spelunking (Spoilers)

The Descent, a well renowned, critically acclaimed British horror flick from the director of Dog Soldiers, had somehow passed me by over the years. With Google Play offering me only 99p to rent it for 48 hours, I thought I’d give it a go.

From IMDB: A woman goes on vacation with her friends after her husband and daughter encounter a tragic accident. One year later she goes hiking with her friends and they get trapped in the cave. With a lack of supply, they struggle to survive and they meet strange blood thirsty creatures.

I thought the opening was very interesting. It set up the extreme sports loving Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and her friends, Juno (Natalie Mendoza) and Beth (Alex Reid) as we seen them white river rafting. Sarah’s other half and her daughter were at the bottom waiting for them and even in this short scene it was insinuated that there was something between her husband and Juno. On the way home, Sarah was distracting her husband whilst he was driving leading to a fatal car crash resulting in the deaths of both her husband and her daughter.

The film cuts to a year later and the three friends gather together with three others to go spelunking and for some reason we’re supposed to feel sorry for Sarah. She may have lost a husband and a daughter but for me we didn’t get to know any of them because their appearance in the film was only fleeting. This is a method a lot of film scripts adopt. I call it forced empathy and characterisation because we’re meant to feel sorry for the main character right from the opening scene. But we don’t know the main character yet, it’s too early, for all I know she might be a bit of a nob and it turns out, Sarah, is a bit of a nob and a grumpy nob at that. But she was in good company as the whole group of six come across as a bunch of morons. The night before the expedition they all get drunk and bond but I always felt they were always on the verge of having an argument to the point where they didn’t come across as close friends.

From that moment on I felt the film would fall in to an easy, generic trap and that was a story based on stupid decisions rather than clever, well written plot points, and the fact that Juno decided not to take the guide book confirmed my suspicions. Running blind into dark caves, jumping down holes on their own are just two examples of this and you realise you’re just watching a bunch of morons going cave diving using luck and fortune as a guide than actual knowledge and wits. It’s difficult to feel sorry for any of them as they bungle their way through the cave system. The only real positive about the first half of the film was the direction. Neil Marshall managed to capture the claustrophobia of spelunking, crawling through slight gaps, the darkness the closeness of the cave walls.

Around the half way mark the creatures turn up and the film takes a decidedly steep, upward turn. Suddenly, the stakes are raised, the level of threat reaches new heights and there are some excellent ideas within the first five minutes of them turning up. The introduction of the night vision camera always gives good value to ghost and monster flicks and the film is at its strongest when all you can see are caves washed with shades of green. Even though the six main characters are all bozos, the peril they suddenly find themselves in makes you feel something for them which made me wonder whether all of the first forty-five minutes was completely necessary. Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen more creatures and the girls using their wits to outsmart their adversaries rather than indulge in a couple of fist fights.

After a while the film settles into a sequence of set pieces, the fight in the pool of blood, the crawler creeping over two of the girls, the unrequired and poorly set up tension between Juno and Beth, the latter leading to a cheesy moment between Sarah and Beth as Beth explains her predicament all the while a hole in her throat is pumping out blood. There’s nothing like a disastrous spelunking adventure to settle your differences. One of the aspects I learned from film school was to always think about how a film looks. The moments when Sarah looks a bad ass, covered in blood, swathed in crimson light certainly plays into this, as well as Juno kicking crawling butt, coming off as a take on Rambo. Visually, it all worked but I wish there was a little more story thrown in.

On the whole, a strong second half made up for a lacklustre first half and the film is definitely worth a watch if you’re short of something to do and have 99p in your Google account. It has some great moments, some good scares and claustrophobic feel, it’s just a shame the characters were idiots and the story could have done with a little more substance.

Quatermass and the Pit 1967

By Pete Worrall • February 7, 2022
I recall watching Quatermass when I was young, however, I don’t think it was the Hammer productions, instead the BBC adaptations. Because it was a long time ago I can no longer remember what the Quatermass films were about and what happened in them. The only recollection I have is the middle-aged, bearded scientist image of the leading role, Bernard Quatermass. Amazon Prime have, or at least had, I’ve not checked in a while, both 1955’s The Quatermass Experiment and Quatermass II and I watched The Quatermass Experiment not so long ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it from a story point of view and thought the ideas and the way the plot unfolds was really good. My least favourite aspect was Quatermass himself played by Brian Donlevy. Spikey and uncharismatic, I felt the film would be better off without him and wasn’t 100% sure what he brought to the proceedings. However, the 1967 version of Quatermass and the Pit was in my Hammer Boxset and I was eager to find out what was in store and what Andrew Keir could bring to the role of the scientist From IMDB A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called into to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.

The Devil Rides Out 1968

By Pete Worrall • February 7, 2022
For some reason I thought I had already seen this Hammer Horror classic and maybe I had when I was younger but I could not recall the opening scenes suggesting I had not. I recognised imagery from the film thanks to trailers, clips and segments in Iron Maiden videos; perhaps this was the cause of my mistake. My expectations were high when hitting play as some, especially in the British Horror Group I am a member of, herald it as peak Hammer with the great Christopher Lee often siting The Devil Rides Out as his favourite Hammer film. It had a lot to live up to, however, invariably such films fail to deliver due to unmeetable expectations, but Christopher Lee, Devil worship, Charles Gray, directed by the great Terence Fisher…what could go wrong? First of all, it was lovely to see Christopher Lee starring as the protagonist, not the action type, that was the job of Leon Greene, but as the wise council and voice of reason, no wonder it was Lee’s favourite Hammer film, he got the chance to play a good guy for once. The film doesn’t hang about, as soon as Leone Green lands his plane and is met by Christopher Lee. He asks about someone called Simon and within a few lines of dialogue we’re at Simon’s new house because they’re worried about him and hadn’t seen him for at least three months. My first thought was he’d met a girl or taken a new job but it turns out he’s having a dinner party and hob nobbing with a group of new friends from an astronomical society. Of course, Christopher Lee suspects they’re all devil worshippers ready to sacrifice chickens. For me, it was a stretch for him to conclude this within the first nine minutes of the film and I wish more time was given for his suspicions to embed. A general decline in Simon’s behaviour perhaps or more clues gathered to Simon’s new ‘hobby’, it all happened a little too quickly, especially as Simon’s behaviour is quite pleasant and not sinister at all. Simon’s bought a new house, I’ve not seen him in three months that means he’s dealing in black magic. Simon insists Greene and Lee leave (this would make more than thirteen at the party and thus unable to perform the ritual) but Lee punches Simon’s lights out instead before kidnapping him and slugging the butler at the same time, it was all a little clunky for me.

The Nanny 1965

By Pete Worrall • February 6, 2022
One of the best Christmas presents I have ever received, yes, even greater than the roller-skates when I was seven, and I wrote that correctly, they were roller-skates not roller-boots which basically meant they were flipflops with wheels, was The Hammer Collection box set. 20 Hammer films including all their classic movies (although that’s a matter of opinion), some I have seen a long time ago and some I have yet to watch. I’m planning to cover some of them in this blog…well, I’ll see how I go. The first one I fancied out of the box was 1965’s The Nanny with Bette Davies and Wendy Craig, a film I had not seen and the IMDB premise piqued my interest. There's just something not quite right when Bette Davis stars as an English nanny. And is her 10-year-old charge an emotionally disturbed murderer or just an insolent brat? The film opens with Bette Davies carrying a parcel through a playground and a park and all is good with the world, it has to be, the music by Richard Rodney Bennett tells us so. She eventually ends up at her employers who are having a to do where the mother is in tears and the husband is telling her to pull herself together, why? Because their son is coming home. Bette swans about as if this is a regular occurrence and already the husband and wife relationship is an uncomfortable watch with the prickly James Villiers, who also played a prickly role in For Your Eyes Only, instructing Wendy Craig to put some make up on while she bawls into a pillow.

Get Out

By Pete Worrall • December 19, 2018
I sadly missed Get Out when it was on at the local cinema and I’m quite glad I did because I’m not sure I would want to squirm in my seat in public for 110 minutes. I don’t think I’ve felt so uncomfortable watching a film, not even watching The Wicker Man. In fact, if you’ve not seen it, stop reading this and try and grab yourself a copy. From IMDB: Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

Mama

By Pete Worrall • December 13, 2018
2013 scares from Andy Muschietti and a film that had been in my ‘to watch’ library for a while but, for some reason, never put aside enough time to watch. But, after the clunkers, Annabelle and IT, I was keen for at least a solid scare fest and, thankfully, Mama delivered. From IMDB: The senior partner of an investment brokerage, Jeffrey Desange, has a breakdown due to a financial collapse and kills several co-workers and his estranged wife. He then kidnaps his two young daughters, Victoria 3 and Lilly just 1. He drives his car recklessly through a winding snow covered road. He loses control of his car and drives off an embankment. He finds an abandoned and isolated cabin where he plans to kill his daughters, but the children are saved by a dark ghostly image. Jeffrey Desange’s twin brother, Lucas has been on the hunt for his missing brother and his family for five years, almost pushing himself into financial strife himself because of it. His girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain) is a punk rocker, more interested in her band than having a child, and so we begin her story arc as we witness her relative disinterest in the two children when they are found five years later in the same abandoned cabin.

The Mummy (1959)

By Pete Worrall • December 8, 2018
The Horror Channel’s season continues with Hammer’s The Mummy. The myth of the Mummy is perhaps as old as horror itself and, for me, I’ve always found the start of such films more interesting than the final act. If you have a weakness for tombs, ancient tales of evil and grave robbing in your movies, then The Mummy always works because the creature is always hidden underneath a shroud of mystery. Only when the Mummy actually appears does a film usually fall into a chase movie. There’s nothing wrong with this but I’ve always felt the set up was always far stronger than the pay off because, and this is purely personal, I don’t find someone wrapped in bandages all that terrifying. The film starts with a team of English archaeologists breaking into Princess Ananka’s tomb, and, before they are about to enter, Egyptian, Mehemet Bey, warns the archaeologists not to go into the tomb, but his wise words are ignored and rightly so because otherwise the film would have only been ten minutes long, including credits.

IT

By Pete Worrall • December 5, 2018
I don’t particularly want to waste too much time writing about IT The Movie because the less time spent thinking about this tedious affair the better in my opinion. The film has a good reputation, a decent IMDB score and I was genuinely disappointed when I missed it at the local movie theatre. After the first five minutes I thought I was going to be in for a thrilling ride because the start was brilliant. When Georgie runs down the rain soaked street chasing his boat only for it to fall down a drain and we meet Pennywise for the very first time, I felt the dread because Bill’s Skarsgard’s portrayal of the clown, the script and cinematography in those few moments were sublime.

Annabelle

By Pete Worrall • December 5, 2018
The third film in Warner Brother’s Conjuring universe focuses on the Annabelle doll first seen in the original Conjuring film. One cannot deny the Annabelle doll had a creepy presence in that film, especially the scene where was sat in a chair and her head slowly moved. Pediophobia is a relatively common so if you’ve going to include a weird looking doll with an uncomfortable stare in your movie then you’re already onto confirmed success, right? Not quite. The film focuses on John (Ward Horton) and his heavily pregnant wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) who live in a neighbourhood where people do not lock their doors and everybody goes to church. Mia collects dolls and, after upsetting his wife with a comment he clearly hadn’t thought through, he gifts her the Annabelle doll because Mia had been searching for it to add to her collection. One night, two members of a satanic cult break in their house and attack Mia. Thankfully, Mia and baby suffer only a modicum of stress, however her attackers were not so lucky. Once is shot by the police and the other slits her own throat whilst hold the Annabelle doll. From then on, strange things begin to happen around the home.

The Blackwell Ghost

By Pete Worrall • December 1, 2018
I noticed this film on Amazon Prime while I was looking for some alternative horror. I was drawn towards the thumbnail which is the portrait of a mature, lady with a thunderous expression and dressed in an early 1900’s garb. I thought I was going to get an old fashioned ghost story similar to the BBC Christmas ghost stories from yesteryear, but The Blackwell Ghost couldn’t be further from a Victorian spine chiller. Although, it does have something in common with the BBC, in style only, and that is 1992’s Ghostwatch. At only an hour long, this mockumentory follows the exploits of Turner Clay as he puts his zombie movies on hold to look into whether ghosts are real. After putting out a call for paranormal experiences, only one piques his interest, a house in Pennsylvania where the owner experiences ghostly activity almost every day. It turns out a previous owner, Ruth Blackwell, had killed several local children and hidden the bodies in the drain beneath the house. What a lovely lady.

The Babadook

By Pete Worrall • November 29, 2018
The Babadook has been on my radar for quite some time. Ever since Mark Kermode noted as his favourite film of 2014 and its raft of awards, I’ve been keen to watch it. Finally, after plucking up some courage on a cold, Autumn night, I sat down to watch it full in the knowledge that the trailers had done their job and filled me with dread even before I pressed ‘play’. From IMDB: A widowed mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son's fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her. It’s not really a story about ghosts, it more a tale of a mother connecting with her son with the sinister presence acting as a catalyst. There’s nothing like an evil entity to bring a mother and her child closer together. After ninety minutes, was the Babadook worth the wait? Was it worthy of Mark Kermode’s praise? For me, the answer is yes and no.