The Descent Camera Analysis

Horror movies often get cast off immediately, due to their reputation of having bad plots, lots of unnecessary attractive women, tons of terrible sequels. While the movie I watched, the Descent, isn't a complete exception since it's set in a cave with monsters, it's an all female cast, and they are coming out with a sequel in December, what makes it different is that the camera encapsulates the viewer into feeling like they are in the same trapped situation as the characters(it managed a 71 on Metacritic, which most horror movies couldn't dream of getting). Prior to entering the cave, the camera behaves like it would in a normal movie, having large pans around beautiful scenes, and switching cameras at regular times. But after we've entered the cave, the majority of the shots become either close ups or extreme close ups, allowing the viewer to see little if any more than the helpless heroines giving us a view as if we are following them. As well, the camera gets put into small trapped spaces whenever one of the group gets trapped, and continues to do staging shots of them struggling to draw out the tension in the viewer. Depth staging is also used to present the first of the creatures sneaking up on the group behind someone with the camera in a night-vision camera mode. Not quite as excitingly, tilts are used at times when characters are talking in circle like situations making you feel as if you are one of the group talking looking back and forth to see what the other has to say, and dolly shots are used whenever there were the few car scenes to follow the cars driving to the cave. All in all, the movie uses an excellent use of camera shots to control the viewer effectively, I recall the first time I saw it in the theater, the first breath I took as I left being a reliever that I wasn't stuck in that cave still.