‘The Descent’ captures what horror is all about

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In theaters

THE DESCENT, written and directed by Neil Marshall, 99 minutes, rated R.

The last time Hollywood spelunked us, it was in last year’s “The Cave,” and the disappointment ran deep – every one of its surprises was packaged. People got picked off, the screen shook, monsters roared, the prettiest survived. The film was bamboozled by banality, featuring an ending that was such a cheat, it offered no closure and only existed with the high hopes of setting up a sequel.

Thankfully, at this point, there isn’t one on the docket.

Neil Marshall’s “The Descent,” on the other hand, gets it right. From Marshall’s own script, the film follows six women who regroup a year after tragedy leaves one of the women, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), nearly destitute.

Their new outing, designed by the adventure-seeking Juno (Natalie Mendoza), is meant to bring the women closer and put the steel back into their backbones. As such, what Juno suggests is a formidable challenge not without its risks – they will travel to the Appalachian Mountains and traverse a tricky, little-known cave system previously unclaimed by humans. The idea is that should they succeed, it will put them firmly back on track as a team while lifting everyone’s self-esteem in the process.

Naturally, stumbling blocks abound. First, the tunnels that wind through the cave are unnervingly claustrophobic and tight, so much so that bums tend to get stuck and anxiety attacks tend to strike when entrances start to crumble. This is, in fact, a trip in which one mother-of-a-Xanax would come in handy, particularly since the real issue at hand is that the cave already has been claimed, though not by humans.

Look beyond the stalagmites. Leaping amid them and eager for fresh meat are an amphibious race of blood-sucking beasts who appear to have been poached beyond the boiling point. Their skin is a slick, moist, pasty white. Their eyes might as well be peeled grapes. They can’t see, but their other senses are extremely acute – and my, are they ever aggressive and hungry. They’re almost as aggressive as the six women they’re about to be pitted against.

At my screening, when the movie really started to cook, you’d swear that those monsters had been unleashed within the theater. At several points, when the best jolts were let loose, the place came alive with genuine shrieks of delighted fright.

That was nice to see, particularly since the modern-day horror movie has become more interested in the less-interesting base elements of joyless slaughter, degradation and humiliation (“Hostel,” the “Saw” series, etc.) than in generating the sort of suspense and over-the-top gore that likely would have appealed to, say, a young Sam Raimi. While none of the actresses leave much of a mark here, they nevertheless are served by a skilled director who isn’t afraid to play with the conventions of the genre while also taking it seriously.

That’s one of the reasons this British horror movie is as good as it is. It borrows, it pilfers and yet somehow, it’s undeniably its own.

Grade: B+

On HD DVD

UNLEASHED, directed by Luis Leterrier, written by Luc Besson, 103 minutes, rated R.

Luis Leterrier’s “Unleashed,” now available in high definition on HD DVD, was released in France under the title “Danny the Dog,” which gets right to the point. The movie is a howler.

The film stars Jet Li as a confused, embattled orphan named Danny who is raised by his brutish Uncle Bart (Bob Hoskins) to be nothing short of a killer dog. That’s the good news. At 42, Li is still clever behind the kick. And so, not surprisingly, he’s at his best when called upon to fight. His blows are precise, elegant and deadly. It’s when he’s called upon to act that things get deadlier.

After a violent start, this action movie sags into marshmallow land with cutesy-pie scenes of awkward character building, the likes of which can be repellently heartwarming, particularly when Li breaks free from his life of crime with Bart and comes to live with an adoptive family – Morgan Freeman’s Sam, a blind piano tuner, and his stepdaughter Victoria (Kerry Condon), who is in Glasgow, Scotland, studying music.

Aware that they are dealing with a fragile soul – the metal collar cinched around Danny’s neck is something of a giveaway that all isn’t right with the lad – Sam and Victoria allow him the room he needs while he sorts out his life.

He won’t have long to do so. Seething in the subplot is Bart, who has worked up a sweat in his ferocious vow to get Danny back regardless of the bloodshed and the lives lost. Meanwhile, Danny is a naif in utopia, flirting with Victoria over ice cream while working to reconnect with the world. What he finds are revelations about his mother (painful), the sort of dialogue that sets the movie on its can (atrocious), and the proper way to thump a melon (helpful).

“Ripe means sweet!” Danny says as he taps a piece of fruit. “And sweet means good!” If only that were true for the movie, Danny boy. Here, ripe means rot, sweet means cloying, and good doesn’t even come close to describing all that follows.

Grade: C-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

ATL – B-

Basic Instinct 2 – D+

The Benchwarmers – D

Big Momma’s House 2 – D

Breakfast on Pluto – B

Brokeback Mountain – A-

Capote – A

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

The Constant Gardener – A-

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Complete Fifth Season – B

Date Movie – D-

Derailed – C+

Eight Below – B+

Failure to Launch – C-

The Family Stone – D

Freedomland – C-

Full House: Complete Fourth Season – C+

Fun with Dick and Jane – C

Hazel: Complete First Season – B+

The Hills Have Eyes – D

A History of Violence – A

Hoodwinked – C

Howl’s Moving Castle – A-

Inside Man – B+

Into the Blue: Blu-Ray – C-

Junebug – A

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

The Matador – B+

Match Point – A

Momento: Blu-Ray – A-

Memoirs of a Geisha – C+

Munich – A-

Nanny McPhee – B-

North Country – C

Oliver Twist – B+

Paradise Now – A-

The Pink Panther – C+

Pride & Prejudice – A

Prime – B-

The Producers – B+

Red Eye – B+

Rent – C-

Ronald Reagan Signature Collection – B

Rumor Has It… – C-

Scary Movie 4 – D+

The Shaggy Dog – C-

Shakespeare Behind Bars – A-

Shopgirl – B+

16 Blocks – B

The Squid and the Whale – B+

Syriana – B+

Transamerica – B

Underworld: Evolution – C-

An Unfinished Life – C-

Walk the Line – A-

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – A

The Warrior – B

The White Countess – C