In 7 words or less: Terrifying maneaters hunt potholers - the inferior sequelBest bits? The first half is pretty good. It starts similar to the original, with Alien-like clastrophobic terror, and then turns more into a slasher/gore/gross-out fest. The height of grossness coming in an "Oh shit!" (literally) moment. Neil Marshall (writer/director of Dog Soldiers and the original Descent, moved upstairs to executive producer this time round) clearly likes to vary his horror sub-genres. And then they ruined it by rewriting the plot of the original.
Did it make you think thoughts? MAJOR RANT/SPOILER ALERT!!! Ok, so to sanitize the original for the American audience it ended when she was driving away in the car, missing the final minute which everyone else saw. And it's clear from the outset, that the American ending is canon as far as this sequel is concerned. That's fine, the sequel's a moneyspinner for the US.
But then it's revealed that Juno survived all along, despite having been left crippled and surrounded by crawlers. What the hell? It was off-screen but there's no way she survived. It's one thing to resurrect Jason Vorhees from Friday 13th, or Three Fingers from Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead - horror serials do this all the time. But resurrect a victim? That's like bringing Captain Dallas back in Aliens. The writers clearly felt there was some emotional baggage left over between Juno and Sarah from the first film that needed closure - I disagree. This is supposed to be a horror film, and they make a poor attempt to introduce some character-driven drama here.
The other thing I don't get is that the film's ending is more similar to the "real" ending of the first than the American one they've decided is canon - you can even tell where they'd have cut it! So if the trend continues for The Descent 3, expect Sarah to be the new leader of the crawlers, and maybe a zombie Juno.
Neil, for the love of God, never ever make Dog Soldiers 2!
Would you watch it again? Surprisingly, after the smoke has cleared, I suspect the positives from this film will outweigh the negatives.
Rating (out of 100%): If they'd made the same sequel but with no living characters from the first film (apart from the crawlers of course) it would have been decent, albeit not quite up to the original's standard - would probably have been better if Neil Marshall had a more hands-on role. As it is, lose 40 points for the blunder - 27%
