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Film review

The Descent: Terrifying steps in the right direction

Two new horror films embrace a different approach to scaring the audience silly, relying on the mental as well as the visual shiver.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 3, 2006

Times Film Critic

Scary movies are supposed to get into our heads, and not always with power drills and chain saws. Graphic bloodshed is merely an easy cheat to make audiences squirm. Repetition has taken the edge off all of those sharp instruments of death and dismemberment.

Two movies opening Friday have nothing in common except a refreshing belief that less gore is more. The Descent is most surprising, since its marketing campaign revolves around the fact that it comes from the same distributor of the far more graphic Saw and Hostel. The screen still gets bathed in blood drawn by subterranean cannibals but only after an hour of fine psychological terror with barely a gruesome image.

The Night Listener is even more discreet and equally effective. Unlike The Descent, this one has bona fide movie stars, including Robin Williams and Toni Collette, practically guaranteeing they won't die messy. The unknown actors in The Descent crawl into a dangerous cave with slim chances of escaping. Characters in The Night Listener are figuratively trapped in their own disturbed minds with apparently no way out.

Both films lose steam after about 75 minutes: The Descent because once we've seen one evisceration we've seen them all, and The Night Listener because the plot abruptly ends. But for those 75 minutes we experience understated terror that has almost become obsolete.

The Descent is the more important work since it directly appeals to gorehounds lining up at box offices whenever they smell blood. Australian writer-director Neil Marshall sets up a standard Spam-in-a-cabin scenario: Six women on a wilderness adventure that goes horribly wrong. Leading the way is Sarah Shauna Macdonald, whose husband and daughter died in an auto accident, and Juno (Natalie Mendoza), who takes the group on a deadly wrong turn toward those flesh-eating Gollums below.

Before dinner, Marshall deftly plays up the claustrophobic conditions of the expedition and establishes tension beneath the chummy relationships. We can't guess where this is heading (except toward the cannibals) or who, if anyone, will survive. The fact that everyone lasts so long ratchets up the tension.

The Descent is conceived as a challenge to modern horror tastes that demand a nasty death every five minutes. When the carnage finally comes, it is with a sense of film history, with visual callbacks to films such as Carrie and Apocalypse Now. Marshall gives gorehounds what they want but not until they get lessons in what they should want.

The Night Listener is far more sophisticated, based on Armistead Maupin's novel, inspired by a true story. Williams plays Gabriel Noone, a New York radio talk show host deeply depressed after being jilted by his lover Jess (Bobby Cannavale). Gabriel is intrigued by an autobiographical manuscript written by a terminally ill, teenage Pete Logand (Rory Culkin) about his childhood of sexual abuse. Gabriel and Pete become telephone friends, with the boy's guardian, Donna (Collette), encouraging them.

Circumstances arise that make Gabriel suspicious Pete's book is authentic, and later to doubt if he even exists. Jess points out that the boy's and the woman's voices sound almost identical on the telephone. Gabriel travels to Wisconsin to meet Pete, but Donna always has an excuse for the boy's being unavailable. Before long, Gabriel is pegged by protective residents as just another sexual abuser looking for Pete.

Director Patrick Stettner keeps his film ominously quiet and teasing. The jolts are psychological rather than visceral. Williams underplays Gabriel's confusion and curiosity to a fine degree, perhaps aware that his routine is getting too predictable. The Night Listener keeps us guessing until a final rush of revelations and a climax so sudden that we feel a bit cheated. Nobody wants cannibals invading this situation, but a bit more physical danger may have helped.

Both The Descent and The Night Listener leave room for improvement. However, viewed side-by-side they present an approach to cinematic terror whose revival is long overdue. These are horror movies with brains that don't ooze for a change.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com

The Descent

Grade: B

Director: Neil Marshall

Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone

Screenplay: Neil Marshall

Rating: R; graphic violence, strong profanity

Running time: 99 min.

The Night Listener

Grade: B

Director: Patrick Stettner

Cast: Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Rory Culkin, Bobby Cannavale, Sandra Oh, John Cullum

Screenplay: Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson, Patrick Stettner, based on Maupin's novel

Rating: R; strong profanity, sexual situations

Running time: 82 min.

[Last modified August 1, 2006, 13:09:50]