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Whenever you watch a movie, you're also probably watching just about every other movie you've ever seen. The images that flash by trigger associations in your brain -- some of them deliberately planted by the filmmakers, others not. Still, you've got all these images and memories banging around in your head and they're going to connect with something no matter what.

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As I wrote in my review of "The Descent" and subsequent postings, director Neil Marshall quite deliberately conjures up memories of other movies (especially, but not exclusively, horror movies) to evoke emotions and effects that have lingered in viewers' imaginations.

Take the "rebirth" of one character, who emerges from the ground coated in blood, like a baby from the womb. This image resonates with memories from a number of terrific movies. Before I get to a more detailed discussion, the usual **SPOILER ALERT** is in order -- not only for "The Descent," but several of its antecedents, including "Deliverance," "Carrie," "Evil Dead 2" and "The Third Man." OK, let's give these movies a hand!

Continue reading "Tracing the image #2: The rebirth of 'The Descent'" »

Posted by Jim Emerson at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Now that "The Descent" has passed its second weekend, I thought I'd begin posting some of the visual quotations I'd promised. But first, there's one auditory quote that should be mentioned. When Sarah goes off to explore inside the cave, she hears -- or thinks she hears -- the laughter of a child, reminding her of her dead daughter. That's a direct reference to Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now," maybe the scariest movie I've ever seen, and definitely one of the finest psychological horror pictures that wasn't directed by Roman Polanski.

"The Descent" invokes an ineffably unsettling moment from Peter Weir's best film, "Picnic at Hanging Rock." On the climb up to the cave, Juno simply stops and looks at the wilderness around her. There's something strange, wild, and mysterious in the air -- something beyond the ken of these women as they are about to begin their descent.

After the jump: "The Shining."

Continue reading "Descent imagery #1" »

Posted by Jim Emerson at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

View image "The Flaming Spirits of the Evil Counsellors" (illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy") Gustave Doré (1865)

"The Descent" quotes from a whole bunch of movies (and I'll be illustrating some of those soon), but while watching it I was also reminded of some other works of art -- not necessarily because the movie actually borrowed the images, but because it evokes some of the same (cold, hollow, damp, creepy) feelings I get from some of these paintings. Like this Doré engraving for Dante's "Inferno" -- a vision of a subterranean hell in which dark creatures of the imagination (and, perhaps, of the flesh as well) are let loose. As the women in the movie are warned before taking the plunge, the mind plays tricks on you down there.

In a previous post, I compared the fantastic poster with the Surrealist photograph that inspired it. After the jump are a couple more images (from Goya, Fusili, Doré) that popped into my mind during "The Descent." (You just can't keep this stuff down...)

WARNING: I don't want to plant these images in your head before you see the movie, so that's why I'm keeping them off the main page. After you see "The Descent," though, please post comments with your thoughts. Were you reminded of these, too? Were there other non-movie associations you made? (Please remember that comments don't go "live" immediately.)

Continue reading "Cave paintings: The art of 'The Descent'" »

Posted by Jim Emerson at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

View image: Here's an eye-opener...

As you may know, "The Descent" (which opened in US theaters this weekend) was released last year in Great Britain, where it is now available on Region 2 PAL DVD. The British release has one final scene that was snipped for American audiences, though I really don't know why. I think it adds another note of ambiguity and mystery that... Oh. All right, I think I understand now.

After the jump: Frame grabs and a YouTube clip from the limey version.

Continue reading "'The Descent': The deeper ending" »

Posted by Jim Emerson at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)