Lady Art Collective

View Original

Ladies of Horror: The Descent

Written by Cat Wilson, of catthewilson.com
Today’s pick and part dishonorable mention is The Descent. Okay. This movie passes the Bechdel test in the first few minutes. It is a film about an all female group of cavers. There are feminist blogs that love this film, so we felt it was important to include it. However, we had a few problem with the plot.

SPOILER WARNING:

Just because the film has an all woman casts doesn’t mean it’s feminist or a good movie. The leader Juno is supposed to be a experienced caver, but she purposely takes them to an unexplored cave without the others knowledge or consent. One of the women falls in a hole for no good reason. When the monsters attack all of the women panic and one of them dies because she gets in the way of Juno’s pick axe. Juno leaves her to die. Everyone is picked off but the main character Sarah and Juno, who turn on each other because of a love affair. And then Sarah leaves Juno to die and makes it to the surface. Or does she? In the director cut where Sarah dies too. Okay feminist blogs, yes they do fight for their lives. And yes Juno is a kick ass bitch when she isn’t pick axing her own friends. And yes no male hero sweeps into save them… because they all die. So one reading of this movie could be “don’t let women be cavers because make dumb decisions, freak out in an emergency and will turn on each other”. You know “bitches be tripping” underground. So yeah. It’s kind of feminist but seriously we need more women to the front movies so we can leave this one in the dust. Ugh and look at that poster… when have men’s bodies been shaped into things? Okay rant over.