The Descent

After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.

Neil Marshall's cave-set horror earned strong notices on both sides of the Atlantic, with critics singling out its suffocating atmosphere and the all-female ensemble as genuine strengths — but the film's creature designs proved genuinely divisive, with some reviewers feeling the crawlers undermined what worked best about the slow-burn first half. Its reputation has only grown since release, now widely regarded as one of the defining horror films of its decade.