The Descent

IT REALLY IS SO SIMPLE....I REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE CONFUSION OF THE ENDING!

Are you all my girlfriend (who, what, why, how come...) in disguise? ;)

****SPOILERS AHEAD***********

She bangs her head, hallucinates about escaping and thus putting US the audience into a self sense of security also thinking she escapes, then Juno pops up in the car for the obligatory 'Carrie/Friday 13th' jumpey ending' and then she's back in the cave and didn't escape at all and there is NO WAY OUT for her.

And NO, director's rarely use the 'it was a dream/ kop out ending'.
I can't think of one film in the past 20 years that HAS used it.
Other than Dallas, Wizard of Oz and the odd ABC 70s TV Movie perhaps.
I've NEVER seen it used in recent years. The director would be lynched and probably be resigned to doing pop videos for MTV!

And nobody even mention that the ending was lining up for a possible 'sequel'!
Because it would NOT WORK.
The director has played all his carRAB in creating the claustrophobic, tense atmosphere along with a feeling of dread in the unknown not to mention the surprise of the 'underground Orcs'.
 
I still believe the ending wasnt that clear but it may have just been that simple as she was stuck there and she would have been killed by all of the monsters. That ending can be interupted in different ways as me and my mate were still talking about it way after we left the cinema!
 
PJ68 it wasnt lost on me it was just that I was looking at all the possible explainations of the ending. At first I thought the same as you that she was just stuck there about to be eaten but after me and my mate were talking we started to question the fact if she was still dreaming or not!
I have to agree with rossonthenet early comment that you are getting very worked up over the ending so it better that we agree to disagree about the ending!
 
No you didn't.

However they do use it now and again in the middle of a film to trick or confuse the audience in to thinking 'is this bit real or a dream?' (as is the case in The Descent' although at the end) and they usually wake up in bed (with an unnatural sudden jolt) and we are finally put out of our misery.

I think this is what you meant and is as an age old 'horror film, 'cheap thrill' technique.

What was that horror film that used the technique (in a scene) quite cleverly, but went the extra few yarRAB and it was a dream within a dream within a dream etc.?
Maybe one of the Elm street films?
 
Fantastic film, the perfect horror film to me, but, while it's interesting to read all the different interpretations of the ending, I really do think the simple one is the best, that she didn't escape. Something i've noticed with horror films is that you can't have the hero survive if they've caused someone else's death in cold blood, even though Juno arguably deserved it.....
 
I thought this film was good - very enjoyable but somewhat confusing. Also thought the director/story writer could have established a bit more where the creepers (that was there name according to the credits) came from - where they old miners, cavers that got lost and ended up living in the cave or just some sort of curious half human beast like creatures like a bigfoot might be considered.

Also thought a good set up might have been that no monsters actually existed but that the girls all killed themselves or each other - which pretty much was the case anyway becasue of panic, lack of oxygen etc bringing on mass hysteria and common dillusions. This point was actually set up quite nicely near the start of the cave expedition when one of the girls said that caving could bring on such symptons. Now if the scottish girl had already suffered a breakdown and was unstable then when she started to hear a child's laugh that was the first sign of another breakdown in the cave - she starts to see monsters an this is compounded by her getting stuck in the hole - again panic. She is so convinced that she begins to talk about it and introduces the idea into the heaRAB of otehrs - when they find out that they are trapped in an unknown cave system they all begin to see things - in their heaRAB of course - the panic that sets in causes them to run - fall down holes break limbs, attack each other etc imagining it is the monsters - the first death is a good example of this.

in the end all but one survive, she does get out but her hallusionations continue in the car with juno appearing and her trip back into the cave where her daughter is - it all becomes a metaphor for descent in maddness. Interesting theory - no?
 
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