OT: THE DESCENT

[oxbeard]

Very glad to hear Dave and others. I really hadn't held out much hope for this one. But now I'm glad to know it will be worth it.

Oh and I really liked Dog Soldiers too.

The Cave, well that's a whole other story

 

[Michael Crawford]

The 'villians' of the movie of "The Cave" (which was not even on par with the actual execution of said 'villians' in "The Descent" had..."The Descent" was far better) seemed very similar to me. What the creatures were and now are etc... Hey I thought "The Cave" was a terrible film but I couldn't deny a similarity between both films.

As for the effects...some were good but there were occasions (especially near the end) where they brought me right out of the film.

Ah, but there is absolutely no attempt in The Descent to try to explain what they are. They are simply there, which makes sense, because if you were in that situation you'd have no idea what they were - just that you better damn well get the hell out of there. I like that about the film, the lack of explaination around the creatures.

 

[CAhobbit]

Ah, but there is absolutely no attempt in The Descent to try to explain what they are. They are simply there, which makes sense, because if you were in that situation you'd have no idea what they were - just that you better damn well get the hell out of there. I like that about the film, the lack of explaination around the creatures.

I think cave paintings along with the look of the creatures gave the 'idea' of what they might be. Whether it be the right assumption or not is not given in the film and thus we don't know the answer (but I do think one can make an assumption there).

 

[Michael Crawford]

I think cave paintings along with the look of the creatures gave the 'idea' of what they might be. Whether it be the right assumption or not is not given in the film and thus we don't know the answer (but I do think one can make an assumption there).

We're starting to wade into spoiler territory, so I'm marking this as a SPOILER! I won't give much away...yet...but if you haven't seen the movie, you might want to tread lightly...

Interesting - I don't take the cave paintings to mean anything, at least anything more than the ancient helmet did or the old climbing gear. The cave drawings certainly weren't done by the crawlers, so it merely indicated that people had at one time been in that section of the cave.

What was your take on the paintings? What do you think the movie was saying about the crawlers and their origins? I'm interested in seeing what the movie said to you in that regard.

Michael
MWC

 

[CAhobbit]

We're starting to wade into spoiler territory, so I'm marking this as a SPOILER! I won't give much away...yet...but if you haven't seen the movie, you might want to tread lightly...

Interesting - I don't take the cave paintings to mean anything, at least anything more than the ancient helmet did or the old climbing gear. The cave drawings certainly weren't done by the crawlers, so it merely indicated that people had at one time been in that section of the cave.

What was your take on the paintings? What do you think the movie was saying about the crawlers and their origins? I'm interested in seeing what the movie said to you in that regard.

Michael
MWC

Spoilers............

From the cave paintings it was obvious that ancient folks use to dwell in those caves. Given the look of the creatures (very humanlike) I was under the assumption that these were humans that adapted to living in a cave environment (obviously it would have taken hundreds to thousands of years to evolve of course). That was what I gleamed from it all. Of course I might just be stumbling around in the dark (so to speak) with my assumptions given the that I saw "The Cave" (much to my dismay) and thus a story bias of sorts was then formulated in my mind as "The Descent" storyline progressed.

 

[Duckgoo]

Spoilers............

From the cave paintings it was obvious that ancient folks use to dwell in those caves. Given the look of the creatures (very humanlike) I was under the assumption that these were humans that adapted to living in a cave environment (obviously it would have taken hundreds to thousands of years to evolve of course). That was what I gleamed from it all. Of course I might just be stumbling around in the dark (so to speak) with my assumptions given the that I saw "The Cave" (much to my dismay) and thus a story bias of sorts was then formulated in my mind as "The Descent" storyline progressed.

I assumed that the crawlers used to cavemen who lived in the caves before the ice age. They hid there every since the ice age hundreds of thousands of years ago and evolved into the crawlers. The cave drawings I assumed were from the cavemen before they evolved.

 

[wookilar8]

I'm wondering if anyone that saw The Descent, also read the book by Jeff Long also called The Descent (2000). I haven't read the book yet but it's sitting on my self. People who've read the book say that The Cave was a total ripoff of this book. Just curious if the same can be said about this new or not-so-new movie with the same name.

 

[gdb]

Spoilers............

From the cave paintings it was obvious that ancient folks use to dwell in those caves. Given the look of the creatures (very humanlike) I was under the assumption that these were humans that adapted to living in a cave environment (obviously it would have taken hundreds to thousands of years to evolve of course). That was what I gleamed from it all. Of course I might just be stumbling around in the dark (so to speak) with my assumptions given the that I saw "The Cave" (much to my dismay) and thus a story bias of sorts was then formulated in my mind as "The Descent" storyline progressed.

Spoilers............

Yeah I got the impression that the movie was a variation of the old Cave Man Vs. Space Man arguement.

The way the film rises above normal thrillers, IMHO, was the relationship of the two girls and how the story evolves into a revenge tale. I haven't seen the American version, but I hope the ending still features the female lead stuck with the man-eaters. She was a murdering *****.

[NOTE: Really? In this day and age, the b word is censored? Okay... my bad.]

 

[Michael Crawford]

I assumed that the crawlers used to cavemen who lived in the caves before the ice age. They hid there every since the ice age hundreds of thousands of years ago and evolved into the crawlers. The cave drawings I assumed were from the cavemen before they evolved.

See, I didn't assume that at all, and in fact, if I did, I'd be seriously disappointed in this movie. That makes little sense, since what you're talking about isn't evolution but de-evolution. They were once able to communicate through paintings, used tools, and understood their world, but thousands of years later do little more than grunt and use their bare hands and teeth for weapons?

Cave paintings in other parts of the world have been estimated to be as old as 30 - 35 thousand years. To reach a point to create art, humans had to be fairly evolved. To de-evolve back again to an animal like state for no apparent reason would be pretty weak, imo. Also, most people that created cave paintings didn't actually live in the caves - they went into the caves to do the artwork. All the paintings tell me is that there have been people venturing into those caves for a very long time, just like the helmet and old climbing equipment. It also implies that they didn't usually come back out.

Nah, to me the movie never tries to even imply that these are cavemen, or even actually human. They could be some sort of off shoot - but they could easily be a completely different genus from the same 'missing link' from which we come. They could as easily be alien in nature.

My personal theory is that they are another species of animal, like a Sasquatch, closely related to humans but not quite, that we simply have never found before.

 

[CAhobbit]

Spoilers............

Yeah I got the impression that the movie was a variation of the old Cave Man Vs. Space Man arguement.

The way the film rises above normal thrillers, IMHO, was the relationship of the two girls and how the story evolves into a revenge tale. I haven't seen the American version, but I hope the ending still features the female lead stuck with the man-eaters. She was a murdering *****.

[NOTE: Really? In this day and age, the b word is censored? Okay... my bad.]

Spoilers...

The ending of the U.S. version...

The two women are left (the widow and the mistress). More of the creatures are closing in. The widow takes the sharp, climbing axe thingy and rams it into the mistresses calf. The widow then falls somewhere down the path and passes out. Once she wakes she's sees a light and starts to climb toward it (over a mountain of bones) and is 'reborn' out into the top world. She finds the cars they came in, jumps in one and races away. After a couple of minutes she stops on the side of the road and has a breakdown of sorts. Opens the car window, throws-up and turns back into the car and the mistress/friend is sitting in the passenger seat.

The End.

So the widow gets killed in the non U.S. version huh? I think I would have preferred that ending then what I saw.

 

[Michael Crawford]

The other ending is out on Youtube, and I prefer it, although both do work just fine. The alternate version has about another minute left after she turns and sees Juno next to her.

 

[Darklord Dave]

MAJOR SPOILERS












The 2 endings are the "hopeful" US and the "she's well and truly frakked" original ending.

That actress did such an amazing job that as she's running away I'm thinking - "she has no hope of ever living a normal life again after what she's been through and done". It's kind of a relief though that she got away. However the original ending is much, much, much creepier despite it's totally nihilistic attitude.

 

[don_of_the_dead]

Saw it today, loved it, being clausterphobic it really scared the hell out of me.
Loved the blood and gore.