This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine The Descent, by Neil Marshall.
The Descent (2005, dir. Neil Marshall)
Preface and a Note on the Plot
This week’s column is a strict constructionist application of the 10/40/70 rules, with severe limits of any discussion beyond the frame, except for the concept of the “final girl” near the end. Context for the 10-minute frame: the women have assembled in the cabin in the Appalachian mountains, as they prepare for their caving adventure.
10 minutes:
THE SWEATER
The sweater has a horizontal pattern, as does the blanket on back of the chair, as do the bookshelves and wall logs to the right.
THE FIRE
There is a fire near the middle of the frame, which draws our attention. Later in the film, fire will be very important, as it often is in dark places. One character looks at the fire, one turns away. One seems to be looking at a selection of beer bottles.
CHARACTERS IN MOTION
Each character is in motion, yet frozen in this frame. Character Left seems to be headed for the chair, the warmth of the fire. Character Middle is either in the process of sitting on the couch or standing up. Character Right leans over the bottles, either moving towards them or away.
THE FIGURE ON THE WALL
In the upper left corner, there is something affixed to the wall. What is it? A skull? A coat hanger? Both?
THE BLUE BENEATH THE FIRE
There is something blue beneath the fire. Nearly the same color as the blanket. The character in the striped sweater looks at the blue beneath the fire, not the fire.
40 minutes:
RED
In the caverns, much of the light is red. It reminds you of blood. The source of the light is unclear, but you realize that without the light there would be no movie. This is an understood contract between the viewer and the film.
REBECCA
Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) crosses a deep crevice, working her body, grunting. The women on the far side urge her on. She does not fall to her death in this frame.
MINER’S HELMETS WITH LIGHTS
The women may not be wearing, technically speaking, miner’s helmets with lights, but they are wearing something approximate. These lights serve to illuminate the caverns, not only for the women but also for us. In this way, the apparatus used to help make the film (lighting) is not hidden from the viewer, but exposed. There is nothing meta or postmodern about this.
THE DARKNESS BEHIND CHARACTER RIGHT
This darkness is menacing. Anything could be in there. The filmmakers use the created naturalism of the setting as a source of tension.
POINT OF VIEW
We are privileged to a point of view separate from the characters. We are safely on the “other side” of the crevice, on the other side of the camera. Occasionally, the point of view switches to Rebecca, but not in this frame. This is our safety zone, our chance to size up the situation from the comfort of the other side.
70 minutes:
GREEN
Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), fully aware of the crawlers at this point, slowly walks through the cavern. Her light stick casts everything in green and serves as another in-movie prop that serves as a source of light in the cavern.
WEAPON
The light stick is not a weapon and it cannot protect Sara from the crawlers.
FINAL GIRL (inside and outside the frame)
In her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws (1992) Carol J. Clover coined the term “final girl” to refer to the last girl/woman standing in many horror and slasher films that feature a male killer. Typically, the final girl is different from the other girls who die. She typically does not, for instance, indulge in their illicit teenage activities, such as sex and drug use. She is coded as somehow different from the beginning.
But with alternate endings (this movie has them) the final girl is in question today. There is no finality to the final girl. We have instead options, choices, menus, forking paths, settings, customization, alternatives, re-mixes. Finality and closure are authoritarian. Alternatives are democratic. The final girl is only final in one version. The lines between alternate endings and “real” endings are blurred. They are part of a continuum. All the codes are being reversed, undone. Having lost confidence in the authority of closure, of endings, we have survivors who really died, and those killed who really survived.
Because they want it both ways, these films have lost the power to threaten, and to enchant.
13 responses
This is my most favorite movie!!!
I watched it two days in a row, while most movies I never see twice.
So much of my life’s happiness is because of The Descent. The Descent PART TWO (I know) hurt me in ways that no human man ever could.
If someone, like Stephen Elliott or Isaac Fitzgerald, asked me to write a love letter to this movie, I would. (The beginning of the letter would be: “Dear The Descent, Thank you for this cinematic presentation of FEMINISM. Chicks kicking ASS is both inspiring and arousing. Because of you, I’m two things I thought I’d never be: athletic and 27% gay.)
I did not know there was an alternate ending. I think I’m about to have a seizure. The video store is closed.
But also, I never want to know, as per the eloquent final paragraphs of this essay. I appreciate someone writing this way about horror movies. I care about them very much–they offer a fantastic release from the shitstorm of life.
“Love each day.” (For those of you who know, you know.)
Hi Elissa! I feel your pain: Descent 2 must have been made by people who hate movies. I love The Descent, especially the very slow build-up. That’s where the read dread is. I think I remember reading that the director was inspired by Deliverance. The natural world is so full of terror. Real terror. I just wish it would show itself more often. I just wish it would bite.
Dear Elissa Bassist:
Please write a love letter to “The Descent.”
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hatch, Film Editor
Dear Elissa,
Please write a love letter to The Descent.
Stephen Elliott
Editor, The Rumpus
Dear The Descent,
Thank you for this cinematic presentation of FEMINISM. Chicks kicking ASS is both inspiring and arousing. Because of you, I’m two things I thought I’d never be: athletic and 27% gay.
You begin with three hot babes (two brunettes and a freckled blonde; two have accents) whitewater rafting, and then you kill off the only male character in a super awesome way. I love when we learn later that he deserved to die.
Then you do the whole “one year later” thing, and you feature SIX lady foxes having a pillow fight in a secluded cabin, preparing for another adventure. The pillow fight didn’t happen, but it could have. You leave it open like that.
The important thing here is that you are about six hardcore chicks about to combat the elements and themselves with only spelunking gear, intuition, and boobs.
You terrified me in many ways, more than just challenging my sexuality. You made me scream twice. Layers, you have layers. Life is not just about one enemy, but many, some of them your slut friends, some of them human-rat hybrids. Women need to be prepared to fight a whole bunch of shit at once. Life, like spelunking in a bloody carcass disposal pool, demands dynamism, versatility, and cardio fitness.
You knew I like it rough. You knew I could handle it. You’re a giver.
I can’t stop thinking about you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about something you did, something new you showed me, how fragile life is and how I shouldn’t waste a moment of it not on an extreme outdoor adventure with my lady friends.
Nature laughs lasts, laughs hardest and best, deep into the night, at us. But, think of it all. What a paradise. What a surprise to have a body. You taught me that I can be a badass girl. The next time I find myself in nature, I’m confident all my yoga training and suppressed aggression can be the difference between life and death, love and loss, heterosexuality and homosexuality.
I could go on, but my boyfriend is giving me a weird face.
Love,
Elissa
Elissa,
Thank you for verbalizing a love that, for me, still remains a pair of inarticulate sweaty palms.
best love letter ever!!!
Elissa,
This is too good to let go. What if we keep it going like this (provided that you and the Rumpi powers that be think it’s a good idea). You write another love letter to a movie of your choice, and I’ll respond with a 10/40/70?
What am I, a harlot? I can’t just go around writing love letters to all sorts of movies! What would The Descent think?
I just bought the domain name ElissaBassistIsAHarlot.com
There is only one true love. So true. That’s the way it should be.
I love always love your column, Nick, but this one is special.
And Elissa: your letter gave me messy panties. For real.
Thanks Sugar–I felt the blood writing this one.
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