Descent

Descent textual analaysis

By Sian Knight

About The Descent Juno, Sarah and Beth are white-water rafting in. Sarah's husband Paul and their daughter Jessica are also there; cheering from the bank. Juno is seen talking intimately with Paul by Beth. On the drive back to their hotel, Paul is distracted, causing a collision. Paul and Jessica are killed, but Sarah survives.

One year later, Juno, Sarah, Beth, Sam and Rebecca are reunited at a cabin in mountains in North Carolina along with meeting holly. As they reminisce over an old photo of Juno, Sarah, and Beth, Sarah says "Love each day", explaining that it was a saying of her late husband's.

The next morning the group goes cave hunting, when the group breaks for lunch. Juno apologises to Sarah for not being there for her after the death of her family. The group move through the next passage and it collapses behind them. After a heated discussion, Juno admits that she has led them into an unknown cave system, instead of the fully explored cave system they planned for. The only people who were told about their expedition think they are at the other cave system, making rescue impossible. The group discovers climbing equipment from a previous visitor, suggesting there is a second exit.

Holly falls down a hole and breaks her leg. As the others help Holly, Sarah wanders off and observes a pale creature drinking at a pool. The others think Sarah imagined it. Soon after they are attacked by one of the creatures. The crawler rips Holly's throat. Seeing Holly is still alive, Juno tries to defend her from the crawlers, but she accidently whirls around and stabs Beth through the neck with her pickaxe. Beth grabs Juno's pendant as she drops to the ground, but Juno stumbles away in shock. Juno eventually locates Sam and Rebecca and rescues them from a crawler. Juno tells them she may have found a way out, but will not leave without Sarah. Meanwhile, Sarah awakens and encounters the mortally wounded Beth, who tells Sarah that Juno wounded her and left her. Sarah does not believe her until Beth gives her Juno's pendant, which Sarah finds out to have the words "love each day" inscribed on it (revealing Juno's affair with Sarah's husband). Elsewhere, Juno, Sam and Rebecca are pursued by a large group of crawlers. Crawlers kill Sam and Rebecca, and Juno leaps into a chasm to escape.

Juno climbs out of the chasm and is helped onto a ledge by Sarah, who asks her if she saw Beth die. Juno nods. Sarah then faces Juno, and reveals that she has Juno's pendant, revealing that she knows that she wounded and left Beth for dead and also about her affair. Sarah cripples Juno with a pickaxe. Juno pulls the pickaxe from her leg and turns to face a large group of crawlers while Sarah leaves her behind, Juno's fighting screams fading as Sarah goes further.

Sarah falls down a hole and is knocked unconscious. She awakens, scrambles up a huge pile of bones towards daylight, squeezes through a narrow opening onto the surface, runs to her vehicle and speeds off. She pulls over to vomit and sees Juno sitting next to her, her face streaked with blood. Sarah screams and reawakens to find herself still in the cavern, revealing the events since her previous awakening were a dream. She sees her smiling daughter close by and a birthday cake between them. The field of view widens to reveal that Sarah is hallucinating and she is actually staring at a torch.

Character Codes and Conventions - Symbolic / Macro element The sex appeal is the Asian lady called Holly in most horrors the sex appeal is also the irritant person therefore the audience want them to die first. They are normally the first to die but in The Descent this is not the case. They have put a twist on the normal codes and conventions of a horror.

The final girl is Sarah in The Descent they are seen as weak and vulnerable throughout the film – in this case her daughter died with makes her vulnerable. However as the film unravels and her female masculinity increases and she becomes less vulnerable and weak which results in her confronting the killer.

There is no hero in The Descent however Sarah is the only girl that survives so therefore she could be classed as the hero.

Narrative Codes and Conventions – Symbolic / Macro element The Descent is a Psychological horror because it relies on the characters fear, guilt and emotional instability.

The villain is … because she is the antagonist of the film because she takes her friends to a cave that has not been found before therefore she puts herself and friends in danger. Another reason why she is an the villain is because she kills her friend with a tool from their cave diving. Another antagonist is the creatures within the cave because they kill the group of girls and eat them.

There are many victims within this film, in fact all the girls are victims because they all have some pain towards them with in the film. … suffers because her daughter and husband died and later on she sees all her friends die. The rest of the girls all suffer because they are all killed by each other or the creatures.

Location Codes and Conventions -

Water rafting represents the danger the girls enjoy it shows that it takes a lot to scare them and that they are fearless and nothing could hurt them especially if they area group.

The cabin is relatable creating fears for the audience as it brings a sense of realism, it also creates fear as there is no phone signal and the group of girls are open to attack. This makes the audience feel afraid for the characters as the settings are relatable to every day life.

The cave is also relatable because people go on tours within them which again creating realism and a sense of fear for the audience towards the characters.

Underground tunnels are used throughout this film as it is set in a cave, this puts the characters in mortal danger and causes them to be claustrophobic.

The hospital is used at the beginning of the film and when Sarah has a flash back this connotes death and

Props/Signifiers Codes and Conventions – Symbolic / macro element In The Descent, the weapons are the caving equipment that they have used throughout to climb within the caves. These weapons are held by the protagonist’s however because… has a weapon this means the first antagonist has a weapon as well. This particular weapon is what kills… as… turns around and puts the equipment through her throat.

The protagonist’s get lost within the cave however fog is normally use to create the charater to be disorientated (like in Insidious 2).

Camera Codes and Conventions – Technical/micro element Most of the shots within The Descent are close up, these are used to show the reaction on the characters face. And another shot that is used a lot is point of view, this shows the audience what the actual character’s are looking at.

Mise En Scene Codes and Conventions Technical/ Micro element Holly is the sex appeal as she wears clothing that shows her belly, making her look irresistible to the audience.

As there has been a group of girls used this creates the idea of weakness and vulnerability because they are not a physically fit as men. However because of the hiking equipment they are carrying they seem to be made to look stronger and more masculine then normal.

In the underground tunnels low key lighting is used. This creates the idea of fear as they don’t know what is lurking in the darkness. Night vision is used in the tunnels as well so that the audience can see the creatures in the darkness.

Diegetic & Non Diegetic sound –Technical/ Micro element Non-diegetic sound is used to create suspension, so when something bad is going to happen the music gets louder. It is also used as tension and release so the music is used to build up the suspense and then stopped to release it.

Diegetic sound is used to create realism within the shots as you can hear what is suppose to be in the shot. Eg talking or dropping something.

Editing Codes and Conventions - Micro element The car crash that occurs within The Descent is computer generated imagery is the application of computer graphics that creates or contributes to the arts, film or video games. If something is computer generated imagery it is added onto the clip when they come to edit it. For example the poles that go into Pauls head in the car crash. As this is the only part of editing with in the film other then making clips shorter and putting them together it makes the film look as realistic as possible.

BBFC The Descent is rating an 18, this is because of the profanity, alcohol/drugs and frightening scenes.

Profanity is swearing, The Descent contains swearing a lot for example f*ck is used 44 times.

Drugs and alcohol are used and not frowned upon especially by the remark ‘’lets get wasted’’. As they are promoting this in a slight way they cannot let anyone under 18 see it.

The frightening scenes are gory and explicit as the fight scenes are intense and when he girls get killed it is quite disturbing as they are so explicit.