Descending into Mundanity

After an eventful weekend last week, I find myself back to my usual sleepy Sunday routine over here in JapanLand, and with a tummy full of Singapore noodles from my favourite foodery (which is, rather unfortunately, closing down next weekend - though a last hoorah hootenanny is schedualled for Sunday), I settled myself down for the afternoon viewing. This week we have a horror sequel, that really perhaps have stayed hidden underground...

The Descent Part 2 (Jon Harris, 2009) - 2 Stars

Horror sequels are a dangerous thing. As discussed in my last review, they are the curse of the genre, and though it can usually be said with utmost certainly prior to a viewing that there is in no way, shape or form that a follow-up can outdo its predecessor, there is still something that draws us inexplicably to it, much like many a blonde victim who finds herself running up the stairs rather than out of the front door.

And run up the stairs I did whilst pondering what to watch on this drizzly afternoon in Yanai. I knew I should’ve taken one look at The Descent Part 2 and legged it, and yet the promise of outdoing the solid, atmospheric creep-fest that was The Descent was all too appealing. Unfortunately, much like the cornucopia of sub-par and unnecessary sequels that have come before it, The Descent Part 2 (why “Part" 2, I don’t know… Simply to give it more of a “necessary” feel one supposes. One would hope there were no aspirations of Godfather or Back to the Future status here.) really does nothing to enhance the first movie, or indeed the cinema canon itself.

So for the story; two days after the events of the first movie, our heroine, and apparently sole survivor, Sarah (Shauna MacDonald – Spooks) finds herself somewhat catatonic in hospital. The smart-as-a-button local police decide the best things for her is to take her back into the Appalachian cave system from whence she escaped in order to find her missing friends, each of whom perished in the first film at the hands and teeth of the subterranean “Crawlers”. From then on we are taken on a lacklustre déjà vu voyage back into the caves as the crawlers once again reign terror upon the unlucky troupe.

Unfortunately, all atmosphere and tension created in the first movie is lost a second time round, since really, we know exactly what’s coming. Some darkness, some “oh, wasn’t expecting that” jumps, and some delightful throat-tearing. It’s just all a little stale. Even a “surprise” return of abandoned Juno (the mouth-wateringly delicious Natalie Mendoza – Hotel Babylon) from the original trek does little to spice things up. There is simply nothing original here, leaving one pondering as the credits roll (after a really stupid set-up for three-quel ending) exactly what the point of the whole affair actually was.

Alas, I’m sure if and when the third instalment unearths itself, I shall be sitting nonchalantly through it. I guess it’s some kind of sadomasochism that unfortunately the producers of such trite relish in. Until then though, this is one stairwell I certainly shan’t be running up again, nor a hole I shall be descending.