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The Descent

Play trailer Poster for The Descent R 2006 1h 39m Horror Mystery & Thriller Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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87% Tomatometer 188 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
A year after a severe emotional trauma, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) goes to North Carolina to spend some time exploring caves with her friends; after descending underground, the women find strange cave paintings and evidence of an earlier expedition, then learn they are not alone: Underground predators inhabit the crevasses, and they have a taste for human flesh.
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The Descent

The Descent

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Critics Consensus

Deft direction and strong performances from its all-female cast guide The Descent, a riveting, claustrophobic horror film.

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Critics Reviews

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Alyx Vesey Bitch Media While I think we should question the authority of the ubiquitous male writer-director to shape horror productions, I think Marshall does a good job representing his female characters. Jan 7, 2021 Full Review Sarah Lilleyman TIME Magazine Marshall could very well be the Caravaggio of the B-movie. Oct 15, 2008 Full Review Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader This intermittently effective UK horror thriller carefully establishes the psychological relationships among the women, then squanders this calibrated and generally plausible setup with a series of crude, implausible, and scattershot horror effects. Sep 24, 2007 Full Review Bryce Hanson Horror Movie Talk This is a fantastic horror movie that hits a lot of different beats of horror. It deals out claustrophobia, dread, jump scares, interpersonal drama, all while passing the Bechdel test. A rare accomplishment in any horror film. Rated: 10/10 Sep 23, 2025 Full Review Akos Peterbencze The Screen In Neil Marshall’s 2005 horror masterpiece, darkness emerges as a living organism. It shifts and lurks and claws its way into our nerves, under our skin, and eventually, inside our heads. Oct 31, 2024 Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand ... a film stripped to bloody basics, a ferocious and taut exercise in action horror that recalls early James Cameron, with more gore and less sentimentality. Aug 19, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Taylor The Descent scares from the first to last scene. Claustrophobic and nauseating in the best way. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/12/25 Full Review James O The Descent falls into a long line of horrors preying on the visceral fears of audiences, cleverly bringing these terrors to the surface in a film that is at times hard to watch and experience. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/27/25 Full Review Kyle K. Well done. Intense from start to finish. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/21/25 Full Review Mike V Scream your last breath. The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall 📿 Not bad, but not my favourite either 😐 Meh, it passed the time. Just. 😐 👍🏼👎🏼 After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/21/25 Full Review Troy R Still a great scary movie with a decent story. The all female cast is a unique take, as well as them not stumbling about being helpless (besides the few times they are). Movie is mostly realistic and creates good tension as the film progresses. Gore is also another positive in that it all looks real or intentionally over the top movie ridiculous. Funny enough even though this is not my first watch, the movie still felt new and some of the things I had completely forgotten. This time around I saw the UK ending, and while both are mostly the same it did leave the movie in a more final place than the US ending which was more ambiguous. Also having playing The Forest since my first viewing it was nice to see the connection between the film and the game. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/18/25 Full Review Me I'm not a climber but if I was I would never climb again in caves this one sort of traumatized me The second one is even I think a tad better Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 10/16/25 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis A year after a severe emotional trauma, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) goes to North Carolina to spend some time exploring caves with her friends; after descending underground, the women find strange cave paintings and evidence of an earlier expedition, then learn they are not alone: Underground predators inhabit the crevasses, and they have a taste for human flesh.
Director
Neil Marshall
Producer
Christian Colson
Screenwriter
Neil Marshall
Distributor
Lionsgate Films
Production Co
Celador Productions, Lionsgate Television
Rating
R (Strong Violence and Gore|Language)
Genre
Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 4, 2006, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 8, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$26.0M
Runtime
1h 39m
Sound Mix
Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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