Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Sarah’s best friend and aptly named after Jupiter’s wife (a wrathful, conniving goddess from Greek and Roman mythology), leads the group into their descent, both figuratively and metaphorically. Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), who is still healing and trying to establish her sense of self now that her role as wife and mother is nonexistent, gathers with friends in the remote Western Appalachians to go on a caving trip that promises renewal, recovery, and, above all else, estrogen-fueled adventure. The film follows six long-time friends as they reunite a year after the death of the protagonist’s daughter and husband in a freak car accident. Yet, Marshall’s cult classic rejects these pop culture stereotypes and imbues his heroines with biceps, bravery, and a finely tuned bullshit detector. They are either the virgin mother or the whore. In a genre often populated with overtly sexual female protagonists who are, as The Cabin in the Woods ironically points out, either killed off first (but not before we are privy to a little tits and ass) or maternal figures-think The Ring, Mama, The Exorcist, and most recently The Babadook-the women we see in horror films are often polarized opposites. Neil Marshall’s horror film The Descent stands as something of an anomaly for aficionados of both feminist and horror cinema.
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