It’s about time someone comes along with a decent horror flick. Neil Marshall, the Brit responsible for Dog Soldiers (which no one really saw,) has upped the ante. His new one is about six women, adventure sportswomen all, who dive into some hithertofore unexplored caves in what looks like New England. What transpires from the point they unclip from their rapelling lines to the scrolling of the end credits should be the stuff of movie legend.

It’s smart, it’s honest, and it doesn’t take us for suckers. Marshall knows that what we DON’T see is scarier than what we see, so the shadows reign supreme. And there are moments of such utter claustrophobia that my skin crawls even upon reflection.

The film was released months ago overseas. It’s already on DVD in England. We’ll have to wait to see it on the big screen here in the States, but we’ve got import copies on disc at Amoeba. Now, those of you who followed my recent material liquidation know that I don’t buy stuff anymore, but there are a few things for which I’m willing to throw down a little cash. An incredibly good horror movie is one of them.

Jeremy Wheeler over at Allmovie.com:

Thanks to its heightened sense of claustrophobia and desperate human drama that ratchets up the first half of the picture, the director proves that he’s learned what it takes to thoroughly engross an audience and then scare the living hell out of them. With fine casting and pristine makeup work complimenting the ingenious production design and stark cinematography, the film is a home run on all sides of production and sets the bar for small-budgeted indie shockers (the budget ended up only being around six million dollars). Modern horror films don’t even begin to match what The Descent has in store for its viewers — which is a good thing, because one wouldn’t want it to get any better than this.