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Descent

Play trailer Poster for Descent NC-17 2007 1h 40m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
35% Tomatometer 34 Reviews 33% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Maya (Rosario Dawson) is a friendly college senior who accepts an invitation to dinner from fellow student Jared (Chad Faust). After the date, Jared takes Maya back to his apartment, where he assaults and rapes her. Maya is transformed by the atrocity. Upon graduating, she takes a retail position and turns to drugs. But when she begins graduate school, she finds Jared in one of the classes where she is an assistant. She jumps at the opportunity to get revenge on the monster who raped her.
Descent

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Descent has the potential to make a statement about sexual violence, but falls flat by focusing on revenge rather than Rosario Dawson's emotional state.

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Critics Reviews

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Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly It's been a while since we saw a demagogic feminist exploitation revenge drama, and Descent, while top-heavy with 'agenda,' is shrewdly done. Rated: B Aug 15, 2007 Full Review Scott Tobias AV Club Though a clearly gifted new filmmaker, Lugacy doesn't get a handle on the combustible material, and she gets scalded in the process. Rated: C+ Aug 14, 2007 Full Review Kyle Smith New York Post Look-at-me-I'm-a-filmmaker photography, pacing that has all the thrills of waiting in line at the post office and an utterly predictable plot combine to make the movie even worse than the hacky chick revenge fantasy now showing on channel 186 of your box. Rated: 0.5/4 Aug 10, 2007 Full Review James Berardinelli ReelViews Rated: 3/4 Apr 4, 2011 Full Review Bullz-Eye.com Rated: 4/5 Apr 4, 2011 Full Review JoBlo JoBlo's Movie Network Rated: 7/10 Apr 4, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Sway M Need a brutal female revenge fantasy movie? This is for you. And it is BRUTAL, so make sure you want to see suffering. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/08/25 Full Review dude m Maybe I'm weird but I don't have fun watching rapes. I wanted to punch in the nose everyone involved in the making of this krap sandwich. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member The creators of Descent seemed to want to send the message that rape is terrible and it affects people badly. While it does sort of show how it affects people, it comes across as a kinky porno more than a movie trying to send a message. A man rapes a woman, so the woman gets revenge by tying him up, raping him with a dildo and then the rapist is raped by a man. What message does this send? To me it just looks like a weird porno that some people will probably jerk off to rather than learn something from, especially in the last scene where the rapist gets raped by a woman and a man. It's literally just a BDSM scene. It could've been done much better. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member I think she went over board with revenge. We don't know if she did take any legal action but it was way over done. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member why would Dawson sign up for this? its unbearably dull that does nothing for the character. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Descent fails with its good intentions of addressing the very serious issue of rape and sexual violence. Its setup of Dawson's character, Maya, meeting a charming young man than being assaulted by him is ruined by the film's proceeding murkiness. From then on the film detours into scenes of Maya befriending and hanging with creepy, repugnant debauchee, Jared, at nightclubs and engaging in obscure, pretentious conversations that never mention or reference her assault. Thus the audience is left with no insight of how she's feeling in the aftermath of her rape until a 7 minute revenge rape scene is peremptorily presented, which is even more disturbing, graphic, and sadistic than Maya's. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Descent

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Cast & Crew

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Talia Lugacy

Director

Rosario Dawson

Maya

Chad Faust

Jared

Marcus Patrick

Adrian

Scott Bailey

Alex

Alexie Gilmore

Seline

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Descent

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Movie Info

Synopsis Maya (Rosario Dawson) is a friendly college senior who accepts an invitation to dinner from fellow student Jared (Chad Faust). After the date, Jared takes Maya back to his apartment, where he assaults and rapes her. Maya is transformed by the atrocity. Upon graduating, she takes a retail position and turns to drugs. But when she begins graduate school, she finds Jared in one of the classes where she is an assistant. She jumps at the opportunity to get revenge on the monster who raped her.
Director
Talia Lugacy
Producer
Rosario Dawson, Morris S. Levy, Talia Lugacy, Brian Priest
Screenwriter
Talia Lugacy, Brian Priest
Distributor
City Lights Pictures
Production Co
City Lights Pictures
Rating
NC-17 (A Brutal Rape)
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 10, 2007, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Feb 5, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA)
$13.4K
Runtime
1h 40m