Descent, The

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's the most intense, unpredictable and thrilling cinematic experience I've had the pleasure to squirm through in ages.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The director of The Descent is savvy enough to suggest even more than he shows. And he's old-school enough to load up on glimpses of good, clean, gruesome gore.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

A nasty little tube of frozen horror concentrate.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Neil Marshall's horrifically terrific The Descent cannily recasts 1972's "Deliverance" as a female-bonding thriller with some "Hills Have Eyes"-style mutant terror tossed in for truly harrowing effect.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Though the film's downbeat ending was softened for U.S. release, it's still a long way from happy.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The most exhilaratingly horrifying movie to come out in years.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The Descent sustains a level of intensity that most horror films can barely muster for five minutes.

Empire Dan Jolin

Brutal, bloody, terrifying, astonishing... And so tense it'll leave you aching. The most significant Brit chiller since "28 Days Later."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This one is a creepy white-knuckle excursion into horror, where even the "boo!" moments are so well developed that they cause a jolt.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is one of the scariest movies featuring female heroines since the "Alien" series, and what makes it uniquely scary is where these women are -- in tunnels two miles under ground -- when they realize they are not alone.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Prepare to be scared senseless, and then, when you think you have it figured, your certainty will be shaken by scenes built to scare you even more.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

A cult classic is born.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

At the heart of the film, beyond the human/crawler conflict, is the suppressed tension between Sarah and Juno. That Marshall bothered to include such a fillip sets him apart from run-of-the-mill scaremongers; it makes me want to see what else he's done and will do.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Easily the summer's scariest movie.

Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani

Amid this unrelenting ferocity, Marshall gives his characters emotional depth, and elicits terrific performances from the cast.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Marshall takes a modest budget and a concept that isn't all that original and produces a frightening, intelligent and sexy thriller.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

For those who like their horror served straight up with no ironic chaser, The Descent is a tasty cup of torment.

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

The Descent is bloody, disturbing, and genuinely frightening--you'll be very happy to leave that dark theater.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Marshall keeps the film lean and focused. He does have a nice taste for horror imagery.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

While the women's battle with the cave creatures has fine jump-from-your-seat moments, it gradually becomes the same chase flick horror fans have seen dozens of times. OK, it's a darn good one in most respects.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

What follows is a sensationally entertaining escalation of frights, the kind that make you wiggle and squirm as you alternately laugh at your own gullibility and marvel at the filmmaker's cunning and craft.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

In the great B tradition, Marshall gets a lot out of nothing.

Variety Derek Elley

The chills and spills keep comin' to agreeable effect in Brit-made scarefest The Descent.

Film Threat Jeremy Knox

All in all, this is an accessible art house horror film whose trailer and premise do not do justice to the end result.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The Descent may not be everything you've heard, but man, it's also a lot of things you haven't.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

You either go for a movie like this or you don't. But though I didn't like it much, I've got to admit that The Descent is a nerve-jangler.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Eventually, though, the monsters come out -- blind, snarling cave-dwellers, looking much like Gollum's bigger kin -- and The Descent becomes a simple exercise in guessing who, if anyone, will survive.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This intermittently effective UK horror thriller carefully establishes the psychological relationships among the women, then squanders this calibrated and generally plausible setup with a series of crude, implausible, and scattershot horror effects.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's made expressly for fans of unmitigated gore.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Compulsively watchable, with its fair share of effective sledgehammer shocks; it just isn't very good.