Review of The Descent: Part 2

I saw the premiere of this at Frightfest in UK. The film was introduced by the director (previously an editor) and actors - and the director's complete absence of any self-confidence when talking to the audience was a bad omen. Shauna McDonald even said "be nice to him... he isn't Neil Marshall - but he might just be better" which felt embarrassingly over-supportive. If he can't talk to strangers, is he really going to have the confidence to direct a film? Descent 2 is full of bad acting, flat characters (even Sarah and Juno seem suddenly devoid of character or depth), a very poor script, bad editing and very bad direction. Examples being - some badly timed or inappropriate attempts at humour, horrible exposition from Sarah that is totally out of character. The things that made the first film great - the depth of characters, the dynamics, the subtle back-story and the ambiguity of the events in the caves as a metaphor for Sarahs madness were completely absent from the sequel. Yet, it copies pretty much everything else, the overhead car shots (which Harris also edited into Eden Lake), the David Julyan soundtrack (which is excellent, and not lived up to by the film this time round), the cave shots and the endless 'boo' moments of crawler attacks. They're simply not interesting anymore if you have already enjoyed the first movie. The ending is simply horrible (not in a good way), completely incongruent and will infuriate many viewers. Its such a shame that the story wasn't developed into a new area into a film that could stand alone on its own two feet. You might think I'm being harsh on Jon Harris, the director, but I am honestly getting tired of first time directors messing up great opportunities for film-making. Fans of the first film really deserved better than this.