The Descent Part 2

2009, UK, Directed by Jon Harris
Colour, Running Time: 94 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region B, Pathe; Video: 1080p 24fps 2.39:1, Audio: DTS HD MA

The film takes its lead from the conclusion (depending on which version you saw) of the first movie, with surviving Scottish girl Sarah being picked up running hysterically into the roads of the Appalachian Mountains and dropped back off at hospital where her inability to remember the events of the preceding few days renders her rather useless in the local authorities' attempts to understand what has happened to the all-girl potholing team reported missing.  Nevertheless, the remarkably inconsiderate sheriff decides to haul the jittery woman along with a small investigation team back down into the caves to find out what's happened.  Soon they're discovering a mutilated body - triggering the beginning of Sarah's fragmented recollections - and a whole lot more that makes them wish they'd have stayed at home by the fire that day.  The sheriff's idiotic use of firearms also gets them trapped and thus ensues a struggle for survival in the domain of a subterranean race of carnivorous humanoid animals.

The Descent Part 2 looks and feels similar to its predecessor (and has echoes of Aliens in its storyline), directed as it was by the previous film's editor, and executive produced by the previous film's director (Neil Marshall of course - in fact most of the crew are English).  The edge is invariably going to be taken away from the concept because it's a fairly by-the-numbers continuation of the same things that we saw in ...Part 1, and no doubt it was primarily the popularity of the first one that kick-started this story into production.  However, deactivating any high expectations the viewer may have will prove rewarding - it's a fairly slickly constructed shock-fest (admittedly relying on a few too many modern day jump-shocks) which grants the viewer tangible claustrophobia (this film has not sold potholing to me as an attractive way to spend what would likely be the last few days of my life...) and confrontation with certain situations that are undeniably gruesome.  The end is a little surprising, although slightly illogical upon reflection of the opening scenes (which I obviously won't spoil here), and the sheriff's bombastic approach to policing is irritating to say the least.  Furthermore, there are cliches in there (e.g. creature unnecessarily drooling slime right in front of the camera, kung-fu fighting woman more powerful than what are essentially primeval, blood-thirsty, sharp-toothed monsters, etc) but if you have removed the aforementioned high expectations these negatives don't detract excessively from a reasonably good time, and possibly a contender for a double bill with the first movie in future.

The Blu-ray Disc boasts a very strong full HD transfer - realistically detailed in difficult lighting conditions, naturally chromatic: overall a pleasing image.  Seeing stuff like this makes me wonder why people still buy DVD equivalents of films that are available on Blu-ray, particularly when on-line prices are so competitive.  Similarly the high resolution audio is potent and clear, and you get a choice of either uncompressed (LPCM) surround, or DTS-HD-MA surround (possibly redundant having two choices due to the fact that the latter is natively 'lossless' in its compression techniques anyway, though certainly nothing to complain about).  The disc comes with an audio commentary, a half hour making-of documentary, some deleted material, storyboards, gallery and trailer.  It's also nicely packaged (at time of writing) in a standard Blu-ray case contained within a cardboard slipcase, the design matching well with the previous film when stored.