Plumbing the depths of cinema

NOTE: major spoiler for The Descent now in the comments.

I was supposed to be writing now, but a headache snuck up on me, as did the time, so I suspect I'd just frustrate myself. It's Saturday; we can call this "my day off".

Instead, I'll tell you why The Descent is one of the scariest movies I've seen, and The Cave sucks like Electrolux, even though the two came out within months of each other and have almost identical plots: cavers descend into an unexplored cave system, the entrance collapses behind them, and while trying to find a new way out they encounter things that want to eat them.

1. Claustrophobia: The Descent never lets the viewer forget that the protagonists are worming their way through the gaps between enormous masses of stone. They get stuck, they force their shoulders through tiny spaces, their movement is almost constantly confined. By the end of the film, the viewer is starving for a glimpse of open sky. The Cave, on the other hand, sends its heroes into caverns like parking garages, with level floors and convenient connecting tunnels. (There's an ice cave, as well. How is there an ice cave underground? Is it near a source of...cold?)


2. Gravity: Both films feature a fair amount of rock-climbing, using noticeably similar equipment. In The Cave, they zip around like acrobats, rappelling effortlessly and climbing quickly. The climbers in The Descent hang by one straining arm from a fissure in the ceiling while desperately trying to set a hard point. They twist, they contort, they pay for every inch they win from gravity. They are not superhuman; they are us. (Well, fit versions of us.)


3. Location, location, location: "Somewhere in the mountains of Romania" isn't scary. "Somewhere in the Adirondacks" is.


4. Lighting: The palette in The Descent is almost unremittingly red-to-orange. (The exception comes when people get separated and they provide a different lighting source for each group, to help us identify who's who in the confusion, which works really well.) The Cave is all arc-light blue: very pretty for illuminating the natural cave sets they shot on, but not at all good for building tension.


5. Plot: "They're good cavers, but these two guys squabble about leadership" is not a plot. The Descent gave us a solid character throughline from the get-go; The Cave relied entirely on things in the cave to move the plot. Why should we care? Why would we want them to get out?

I should point out that I'm talking about the unrated DVD version of The Descent; I understand the theatrical release had a much inferior ending. ( Cut for a spoiler. )

From the dream scene in the cabin onward, it had me sitting stock-upright on the sofa, in the dark, eyes wide as a lemur's; on my way to bed afterward, I checked the bathroom for creepers (those being The Descent's monsters). Watching The Cave... I was still looking for creepers.

That reminds me. I should probably check behind the shower curtain again.