How The Sequel To Horror Classic The Descent Was Ruined By Terrible Editing

When making a list of the most terrifying films of the 21st century thus far, you'll probably catch some guff if you exclude Neil Marshall's "The Descent." A surprise horror hit upon its UK theatrical release in 2005 (the U.S. release arrived a year later), the film follows six friends who go spelunking in the Appalachian Mountains; it doesn't take long for the group to run into trouble, which is all due to one member of the group, Juno (Natalie Mendoza), having intentionally guided them into an uncharted cave system. What starts as a pulse-pounding adventure-thriller goes full-bore horror when the women realize they're being stalked by cannibalistic humanoid creatures. The threat of these monsters combined with the claustrophobia of being stuck in a cave maze with no obvious exit had moviegoers pinned to their seats 20 years ago.

Though the original U.K. release of "The Descent" had a different ending the one used for the U.S. version (much to Marshall's consternation), they both felt satisfying and final. Mendoza's Juno and Shauna Macdonald's Sarah arrive at their tragic terminus, and we leave the theater both unsettled and wholly fulfilled.

Even though there was no reason to return to the cave, Marshall's film made more than enough money to justify a sequel. Marshall assumed a supervisory role as executive producer of "The Descent Part 2," while Jon Harris, who edited the first movie, was promoted to the director's chair. Macdonald and Mendoza were inexplicably brought back for another round of spooky spelunking. It was pretty well established that they were "crawler" feed, but the creative team thought they'd figured out a clever way of expanding the story. Macdonald agreed. Then she saw the final cut, and felt burned.

In an interview with SFX pinned to the 25th anniversary of the original film's theatrical release, Macdonald revealed that the original plan was to pick up where the first movie left off. Per the actor, "It was a massive stunt day, cost a lot of money, and they should've kept it."

The opening scene found Sarah, still in the cave, taking the hand of a younger girl's hand and jumping into an "abyss," that, according to Macdonald "becomes this underwater torrent." It sounds like it was quite an ordeal to shoot. As she told SFX:

"We shot it at Ealing Studios. They tied a rope around my ankle, half-submerged a tunnel-like cave system, blasted a rapid through it, and said, 'Just act like you're drowning!' Then they pulled me through this torrent, and then it cut to this still lake. I burst through the water shouting, 'Jessie! Jessie! Jessie!' – because I think my daughter is drowning somewhere after being washed out, and I'm trying to find her, then I collapse on the riverbank."

So the impetus for Sarah to return to the hell of the cave was to rescue her daughter, Jessica. The filmmakers wound up dumping this scene, opting instead for a rescued, amnesiac Sarah being taken to a hospital. What transpires next is a soggy redo of the original movie absent the surprise reveal of the crawlers and nerve-jangling emotional stakes. The film fell flat with most critics (it currently holds a 49% Tomatometer rating at Rotten Tomatoes), and tanked with audiences. I'm skeptical that the alternate opening would've cured what ailed "The Descent: Part 2," but anything is better than resorting to the ol' amnesia sequel cliche. Skip this movie, and stick with the OG "The Descent."