The Descent

Neil Marshall’s film is set in the Appalachians but shot entirely in Britain: exteriors in Scotland and at Ashridge Park in Hertfordshire, the cave at Pinewood. Production designer Simon Bowles built the tunnels from self expanding foam that gave rock texture and could be cut away to let camera and lighting crews in. Marshall says there is no real cave in the movie. Light comes only from sources the characters carry in. Each woman got a different accent so you can tell who is speaking in the dark. Paul Hyett designed the creatures, and the cast were kept from the make up until the take; Marshall describes them screaming and running off the stage. The British release came on 8 July 2005, the day after the London bombings; Pathé pulled the Underground posters and dropped the word terror from the ads. America got it a year later, roughly a minute cut from the close: the original British version goes back into the cave after the escape, the American one does not. Marshall says the only real ending is the original. It took the Saturn Award for best horror film. A good fit if you can sit with half lit faces and work out who is speaking from an accent. Not for anyone who wants the escape confirmed cleanly on screen.