Not often will I see a well rounded-out horror film containing both subtle tropes of traditional mysogyny while fighting against it. The Descent (2005) contains dimension and draws out multiple perspectives from viewers by telling the multilayered story of complex and likeable characters (all women, also a nice change to the stereotypical Horror genre) being faced with conflict after conflict: from being crushed by a cave, to flesh-eating monsters, to past trauma and betrayal.
On that note, to see a team of women bringing different skills to the table and being able to use those to protect each other and themselves was beyond empowering. On top of that, beyond refreshing to see women fight back against the forces of evil and oppression triumphantly; only for me to be gutted once again by them being defeated and turning on each other.
It definitely gave me a stronger sense of fulfilment than I would anticipate from most Horrors, as well as keeping the terror and gore elements to be expected.
Much more meaningful than being killed for having sex; Unlike horrors and thrillers like Halloween (1978) where women were sentenced to death for engaging in “impure” sexual activity, these women kept their tops on and engaged with no men outside of the exposition. Whatever their sexual lives were didn’t matter; it was instead the ego of one, the hastiness of others, and the overall poor judgement of all that led to their downfall. One was rushing at the first sight of what she thought was daylight, which left her falling and breaking her leg. Juno didn’t even look back at who was behind her once and instead of stabbing the neck of a crawler, she stabbed her own friend. On top of that, Juno led them all to this dangerous cave in the first place, claiming it was to benefit her friend.
But even without explicit sexual activity, there was something unsettling in the way the masculine-appearing Crawlers wrestled with these women. The very movements and fights and how the crawlers would drag and grab them very clearly displayed traits of predatory aggression, a need for dominance, and constant violation of the women’s bodies to satisfy the Crawlers’ desire to consume them. Naturally it became disheartening to see Crawlers dragging the women away, and eating away at their bodies still alive.
With this in mind, when characters like Juno, Sarah and Sam fought against them valiantly and victoriously (and brutally), I was cheering at the screen.
The main gripe I ended up having with this film was the bitter consequence of these women standing up for themselves, which was ultimately betrayal- both intentional and not. The final two girls, Sarah and Juno, just finished one of the most badass fight scenes in the film- they both were getting pummeled by the crawlers, and in the end rose above. They face each other, breathing heavily. What at first seems to be a victory for the both of them changes when the camera shows Sarah’s eyes, full of vengeful intent. She then impales Juno’s knee with the pickaxe and bolts, leaving Juno to die to the hungry Crawlers. This was motivated by things Juno did both in the past and in this film, from sleeping with Sarah’s husband before he died to leading her friends to believe that the cave they were spelunking was a tourist attraction, when instead it was an ego trip for her own fulfilment. During this quarrel in the cave, Juno accidentally kills one of their friends, Beth, thinking she was a Crawler. This is supposed to be the initiating event that indicates Juno as a main antagonist, however I interpreted it as the consequences of being in an abnormal perilous situation that drives a person mad. No matter the great amount of teamwork this troop had, it all ended in vain and the two survivors ended up turning on each other anyway. When faced with monsters, humans become the monsters themselves.
Even when facing a monster of a human, in a place where there’s so much more out to destroy you, why should women continue to tear each other apart? Why, when two women triumph, must one leave the other to die after it all? What hurts the most is that this is no horrific fiction- this is the horror of the real world we find ourselves in. The overarching theme of betrayal towards your team and the downfall of a team or society in a cataclysmic situation is a recurring and real theme. The back and forth of the empowerment and discouragement coming from the characters’ situation is very, unsettlingly real.
Whether it be in horror or in general film, I want to see more of these character tropes- women having more to their character than just a pretty object. Women being human in life-or-death situations, instead of helpless damsels by default. Women being able to fight against their oppressors and win.
