The Descent (2005)
Scream your last breath.
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.
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| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 8 July 2005 |
| Genre | Adventure, Horror |
| Director | Neil Marshall |
| Starring | Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza and Alex Reid |
| Runtime | 100 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 7.4/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 87% · Metacritic 71/100 · TMDB users 7.0/10 |
Where to watch The Descent
The Descent is streaming on Tubi in the US.
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Rent or buy
You can rent or buy The Descent on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch The Descent in 28 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Argentina | Prime Video $5199 ARS |
| Australia | Foxtel, ARD/ZDF |
| Belize | Prime Video |
| Bolivia | Prime Video |
| Brazil | Prime Video R$19.90 |
| Canada | Prime Video $9.99 CAD |
| Chile | Prime Video $6490 CLP |
| Colombia | Prime Video $24900 COP |
| Costa Rica | Prime Video |
| Dominican Republic | Prime Video |
| Ecuador | Prime Video $5.99 |
| El Salvador | Prime Video |
| France | Paramount+, Max €10.99 |
| Guatemala | Prime Video |
| Guernsey | Prime Video |
| Honduras | Prime Video |
| India | Prime Video ₹299, Jiohotstar |
| Ireland | Prime Video €6.99 |
| Mexico | Prime Video $99 MXN |
| Nicaragua | Prime Video |
| Panama | Prime Video $5.99 |
| Paraguay | Prime Video |
| Peru | Prime Video S/25.90 |
| South Korea | Wavve ₩10900, Tving ₩10900 |
| Spain | Prime Video €4.99 |
| United Kingdom | Prime Video £8.99 GBP, Max £9.99 GBP |
| Uruguay | Prime Video $U249 |
| Venezuela | Prime Video |
Subscription, free and ad-supported services we track; prices where Binge Boss has a price list for the country. "About" marks a price the service bills in another currency, converted at the day's rate. All countries as data.
What kind of watch this is
Neil Marshall directs this 100-minute adventure-horror hybrid, which trades the usual cave-in for a more intimate kind of trap. The rockfall is just the setup; the real horror is the silence that follows, where every creak sounds like a footstep. Sarah, played by Shauna Macdonald, is there to grieve, not to fight, which makes her incompetence a source of genuine dread. The creatures are not the only threat, because the women in the dark start to turn on each other. It is a tight, suffocating 100 minutes that makes you hold your breath, then release it, then hold it again.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes reports an 87% approval rating as of November 2024, with an average of 7.4/10. Metacritic assigns a 71/100 Metascore based on 30 reviews, which it labels generally favorable. The consensus highlights strong performances and claustrophobic tension. Andy Jacobs of the BBC called it "like Aliens meets Deliverance," while Jim Emerson of the Ebert column found it "fresh, exciting." Not everyone was convinced. Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald noted the film devolved into a guessing game, though he praised the nightmare imagery.
How it did with audiences
The Descent does not come with a box office receipt. There is no budget to weigh against the take, so the financial ledger stays empty. What remains is the audience score on TMDB, sitting at 7 out of 10. That is a solid number for a film that asks you to crawl through darkness and keeps you guessing about what is crawling back. It is the kind of rating that suggests the scariness worked, even if the studio never booked a single accountant.
Where it left its mark
The Descent has been retrospectively regarded as one of the most significant horror films of the 2000s. Its reliance on darkness and tight spaces mirrors the suspense mechanics of Jaws and Alien, a comparison Michael Blyth of the British Film Institute made in 2014. Maria Lattila of Film Stories later called it a top British horror entry in 2025, noting how it treats grief and character. The film’s impact extends beyond cinema. Darrell Gallagher of Crystal Dynamics credited it with shaping the darker tone of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. Andrew Cumming also cited its claustrophobic environments as an influence on his 2022 film Out of Darkness.
Academics have followed the trend. James Marriott’s 2013 monograph for Liverpool University Press examined its treatment of female relationships and trauma.
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TMDB's recommendations for people who watched The Descent.
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Sources
- The Descent on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q1367317 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “The Descent” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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