descent Tagged Articles at Cinematical

No matter what I say, I think most of us out there are never going to believe that the follow-up to Neil Marshall's The Descent could ever live up to the original. But, these latest stills from the sequel certainly make me feel a little better about the whole idea -- well, that and the fact that Marshall acted as a 'hands-on' producer for the flick. Still photographer Ollie Upton recently released a whole whack of still photographs from the flick on his website (check them out below) and it looks like things certainly haven't gotten any better for our heroine since we last saw her.

James Watkins' (My Little Eye) script centers on Sarah Carter (Shauna Macdonald), who has emerged from the Appalachian cave covered in her friend's blood, and borderline catatonic. When she is forced to go back down in the caves to help locate her missing companions, she is haunted by visions of what had happened, and as the rescue party ventures further into the caves, Sarah starts to lose her grip on reality. Of course, you can count on the 'Crawlers' making another appearance, and from then on you know things are going to go bad ... very, very, bad.

The Descent: Part 2 will be released in the UK on May 15th, but so far there have been no dates announced for North America. Stay tuned to Cinematical for any updates on a US release, otherwise, those of us on this side of the pond might have to wait for the DVD.

When I say "that sequel to The Descent is still going to happen," you first reaction might be an audible groan and an eye-roll. (Or perhaps you just don't care.) But there's some promising news on the horizon regarding the "babes in a cave" follow-up: No, Neil Marshall won't be returning to direct the sequel -- but he will be on board as a writer / producer. Plus he's just given a big stamp of approval on the director for The Descent 2.

According to Fangoria, film editor Jon Harris will make his directorial debut on the slimy spelunking sequel. Here's what the director of Dog Soldiers (and the impending Doomsday) told Fango: "I will not be directing The Descent 2 ... But I will be overseeing every aspect of the production. There's nothing to oversee yet, though, as the script is currently being written. My Descent editor Jon Harris will make his feature directing debut with the sequel, and I can't think of a better man for the job."

So far so good, right? Best of luck to Mr. Harris on the promotion. He's got a tough act to follow with this sequel. (In addition to The Descent, Harris cut films such as Snatch, Layer Cake, Ripley's Game and Stardust.)

[ Thanks to DreadCentral.com for the tip. ]

I'm filling in for Matt this week while he's off lounging in Vermont. Mmmm ... lounging. This week I decided to focus on trailers that feature actors and actresses who are just so damn good looking. Bonus points go out to the person who can tell me who spoke the line used in the title of this post, and in what context.

Descent: If anyone could go up against Angelina Jolie in a Sexiest Hollywood Lips competition, it would be Rosario Dawson. In Descent, which first premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, Dawson plays a college girl who is brutally raped by a guy she trusted. From there her entire world flips upside down as she struggles with the transformation this attack has caused, as well as whether or not she should exact revenge upon the guy who did this to her. The film was also slapped with an NC-17 rating, which means this ain't no after school special about coping with a brutal attack while sipping Juicy Juice in the park. Check out Ryan's coverage of the film from Tribeca; Descent is scheduled to hit theaters (or should that be "a theater") on August 10.

Rendition:. Does it get any hotter than Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal? What if we add Peter Sarsgaard, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin to the cast? When her husband is kidnapped and sent off to some faraway "torture" prison for being a suspected terrorist, one woman (Witherspoon) hunts for the truth, one guy (Gyllenhaal) hunts for reasons and everyone else goes along for the ride. Has Oscar come knocking a bit early? Directed by Gavin Wood (whose Tsotsi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language pic two years ago), Rendition arrives in your local theater on October 12. Check out the trailer below.

One of the most talked-about films of the Tribeca festival this year, Descent is a no-holds-barred revenge fantasy about a woman who is viciously raped, has her life thrown off the tracks and eventually comes to realize that the only way things will ever make sense again is if she tries to right that wrong. It's not a film that Pauline Kael would look kindly on, since it very much espouses a kind of eye-for-eye, 'let's settle this thing out of court' kind of adjudication. Since seeing the film last week, I've talked to people who both agree with the main character and the decisions she ultimately makes and those who are horrified by it -- you'll have to see it yourself to decide. The star of the film, Rosario Dawson, is at the festival this year and turned up for a press conference to talk about the film, along with director and co-writer Talia Lugacy, co-writer Brian Priest and co-star Chad Faust. Here is a sampling of some of the questions and answers from the talk:


Moderator: Talk about how you guys put this film together.

Brian: Well, the project, Talia and Rosario were working on for a bunch of years together as a vehicle for Talia to direct and for Rosario to star in -- Talia wrote it with her cousin Brian. It was brought to me by Rosario's mom, Isabelle. I read the script and met with Talia and had a long discussion about the project and how she saw it. From there, putting it together was a quick process -- tough on every end, for everybody, but a quick process -- we're very excited by the way it turned out.

Moderator: Rosario, how did you and Talia meet?

Rosario: Talia and I met at Lee Strasberg when I was 16 years old and she was 15 years old. We had been doing short films all throughout her NYU tenure, and that was pretty much all her Sight and Sound films. With the money from Pluto Nash, I funded and produced her thesis film at NYU, a 20-minute short we did on 35-millimeter, and we did another short film, actually, for Glamour Magazine. They had asked me to direct, and I asked if she could write and direct it, which was really great, and just trying to always establish us as a bonafied team. We've been talking about it for almost 12 years now, that she was going to write and direct and I was going to act and produce. We've been doing it behind the scenes for a long time, and this was our first feature that we were able to get off the ground. It took us a couple of years, until we found Morris, and then it was very quick at that point, but there was definitely a lot of peddling the script around for quite a few years, there. We had to find the right collaborators to help us keep the integrity, which was difficult.

Moderator: Where did the idea come from?

Talia: We all love movies, the three of us, Brian, Rosario and myself. The movies that we love kind of come from -- I personally love movies from the 60s and 70s -- I love movies that don't tell you how to feel and allow you to experience the film with the character, and it was very important to us to create a story where you could watch characters change over the course of it, and endure situations that are not easy to explain and watch them evolve ... and let the ending speak for itself. These are all things we set out to do and did not compromise on the script.

The Black Dahlia -- I'm a huge De Palma fan, but I somehow managed to miss this one during its theatrical run. Colleagues who've seen the film assure me to take my time catching up with it. And that makes me sad, kinda. Extras include three featurettes and ... that's it.

The Descent -- The best horror flick of the year finally hits R1 DVD ... even though I've owned the British DVD for about a year now. The good news is that there seems to be all-new goodies on the Lionsgate DVD, which means I'll be dropping another 17 bucks the day after Christmas. Extras include the "unrated" version (which offers the original UK ending), two commentaries, a 45-minute making-of doco, featurettes, outtakes, deleted scenes, etc. If you're a horror fan and you skipped The Descent during its theatrical run, you're forgiven. But buy/rent/borrow this DVD some time soon!

Factotum -- The always-good Matt Dillon goes extra-good in this sobering yet colorful piece of Bukowski-inspired storytelling. Excellent supporting cast boasts strong work from Lili Taylor, Fisher Stevens and Marisa Tomei. Extras include and making-of piece and the theatrical trailer.

Haven -- A bizarrely unsatisfying ensemble piece in which Bill Paxton, Agnes Bruckner, Orlando Bloom, Sarah Carter, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Dillane bounce around the Bahamas, occasionally stopping to pay attention to some stray plot thread. There's one featurette that might help to decipher the confused mess of a movie, but why bother? Oh yeah, Orlando Bloom....

Jackass: Number Two -- More of the same. Some love it, some hate it. The DVD comes with lots of extra footage: unrated stuff, deleted scenes, outtakes, bloopers, commentaries, random craziness, flatulence, etc.

The Last Kiss -- Zach Braff stars in a romantic drama that''s also a remake of an Italian film that's not even five years old. Co-stars include Jacinda Barrett, Rachel Bilson, Marley Shelton and Casey Affleck. Extras include two audio commentaries, four featurettes, deleted scenes, outtakes, and a music video.

Over a year ago we shared word of a psychological thriller that would star Rosario Dawson. At the time, the plot was simply "a college coed who turns into a vengeful seductress after a shocking act of violence." Now, the CEO of the film's City Lights distributor, Danny Fisher, brings some clarity to Descent as it gears up for a spring release. The film follows Maya, as played by Rosario Dawson, who suffers through a savage date rape. (While Dawson will be the biggest name in the cast, you might be surprised with the choice for Maya's rapist -- Chad Faust, who played the sweet, gay Christian boyfriend of Jena Malone in Saved!) As Maya slowly recovers, she decides to take revenge on the man who attacked her. Sound somewhat familiar?

Unlike Hard Candy, Descent is obviously a first-person account, one which Fisher describes as "equally shocking, controversial and graphic." Surprisingly, the distribution company is prepared to keep it as such, even if it means releasing the movie either unrated or with an NC-17 rating. Where initial news made the film sound like a revenge thriller, Fisher has asserted that it is not. City Lights' marketing plans will instead focus on those who have had similar harrowing experiences through an internet campaign that reaches out to support groups as well as women's rape organizations. Considering the dedication the backing companies have to Descent, this might just take the heat off of Dakota Fanning, since the film is looking to be much more graphic than Hounddog. Then again, Dawson isn't twelve.

I first saw Neil Marshall's The Descent well before it showed up at the Sundance Film Festival (where I saw it for a third time), and about nine months before it finally opened in American theaters -- yesterday! For the better part of a year I've been doing all I can to share my loud and mega-geekish enthusiasm for the film, and now it seems that 4 out of 5 film critics agree: This movie rocks, period, and is certainly one of the finest horror flicks in quite some time.

So to celebrate the movie's $3.5 million opening day haul (meh, shoulda been more), I offer a handily bullet-pointed collection of The Descent triviata. If you've been following the flick forever, very little of this will be news to you, so consider this mainly for the newcomers...

• Yes, the American cut of the film has a different ending than the UK version. It's more of an early snip than an alternate sequence, but you can decide for yourself which ending you prefer. (I like the original one.)
• Made for under $7 million, the flick's already made that much in Spain, France, and the UK alone.
• The Descent opened in the UK on July 8th, 2005, one day after the horrific subway bombings in London.
• Lionsgate bought the U.S. rights two weeks prior to the UK premiere.
• The entire cave system is man-made. There were no interior cave shoots.
• Lionsgate's memorable Descent poster is inspired by an old Dali photograph, one that was previously used in the Silence of the Lambs poster.
• The Descent played more than 20 film festivals, including Venice, Brussels and Sundance. (And Philly! Woo-hoo!)
• Despite buying U.S. rights in June of 2005, Lionsgate opted to hold the movie until August of 2006, mainly because of a Sony release called The Cave, which was not only similar in plot to The Descent, but a very rotten movie, too.
• Another piece of spelunk-horror known as The Cavern (aka WIthIN) was sitting on a shelf somewhere, so Sony decided to drop that one onto DVD shelves just last week, coincidentally enough.
• Although Lionsgate is surely planning to deliver a fantastic R1 DVD release, those with multi-region capability might want to invest in this fantastic R2 release from Pathé. Should LG present any new goodies on their release, I'll gladly drop the 15 bucks on that one too.
• I promise this will be my very last post on The Descent ... at least until that R1 DVD is announced. Oooh, and the 2-disc mega-set in 2008. That'll be cool too! (And there's already talk of a sequel!)

If you're even half a horror geek, then two things are absolutely certain:

1. You seriously cannot wait to see Neil Marshall's The Descent.

2. You are so completely sick to freaking death of hearing me talk about Neil Marshall's The Descent.

Fair enough. But here's something you might not mind knowing: If you live in one of these cities, you'll not only have the chance to see the flick early, but you'll also get to see it with "extra bonus footage," which better NOT be something above and beyond what I already have in my lovely, lovely Region 2 DVD of The Descent. Or I'll be miffed.

The Descent doesn't open until August 4th, but, thanks to Fangoria and Lionsgate, extremely interested parties can check it out on July 26th. With bonus footage. Lucky jerks.

(P.S. One of the critic's blurbs found on this page comes from yours truly. Guess which one!)

At first I thought they were just waiting for people to forget that The Cave ever existed, but the Lionsgate folks have decided they kept The Descent under wraps more than long enough: August 4th, people!

LG looks to be going "wide" with this release, on a weekend that is a fairly crowded one. The brilliant Brit horror flick will have to steal some audience away from The Barnyard, Fearless, The Night Listener, and Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights. Actually ... that's not a bad weekend to release a horror flick, is it? (Plus the late-summer release gives the LG marketing department a little time to come up with some new posters.)

For those who've been lucky enough to avoid my geekish ravings over the past several months, The Descent is about six strong but sexy women who decide to embark on a spelunking expedition, only to discover that they're trespassing in the domain of creatures most unfriendly. Did I mention August 4th?