{"id":100558,"date":"2025-08-27T10:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/100558\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T10:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:08:10","slug":"the-descents-og-ending-is-the-only-ending-there-is-says-neil-marshall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/100558\/","title":{"rendered":"The Descent\u2019s OG Ending Is \u2018The Only Ending There Is\u2019, Says Neil Marshall"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the pantheon of British horror, The Descent<\/a> looms large. 20 years ago, filmmaker Neil Marshall sent six women spelunking in the Appalachian mountains, where they encountered all kinds of primal terrors \u2013 not just the claustrophobic environs of the uncharted cave system itself, but its humanoid horrors lurking in the dark. Two decades on, Empire celebrates the legendary classic by reuniting Marshall with his cast for a brand new group interview \u2013 and the filmmaker has some thoughts on the film\u2019s alternative ending.<\/p>\n

If you saw The Descent in the UK you\u2019ll know it ends \u2013 SPOILER ALERT! \u2013 with Shauna Macdonald\u2019s grieving Sarah seemingly escaping the cave system, only for it to be revealed that she\u2019s hallucinating, still trapped in the depths, envisioning her lost daughter as the cave\u2019s creatures skitter in the darkness. In the US ending, Sarah actually did escape \u2013 which allowed for the production of The Descent Part 2<\/a>, on which Marshall was only a producer. \u201cIt was always argued that the alternative ending was the happy ending. To my mind, there\u2019s no happiness for Sarah outside that cave,\u201d Marshall tells Empire. \u201cHer family\u2019s dead, her friends are gone, she\u2019s completely insane. The best version of it to me was Sarah being, in her head anyway, back with her daughter. So that\u2019s the only ending there is, as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back on the film, Marshall remembers the thing that spurred him to make one of the most terrifying horror movies of all time. \u201cOne Dog Soldiers review said it was more funny than scary, and asked when a British filmmaker was going to make a truly scary horror film again. I took that as a challenge,\u201d he recalls. Now, two decades on, the film hasn\u2019t lost any of its potency. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t dated,\u201d says Marshall. \u201cWe didn\u2019t fill it with contemporary needle-drops, and because it\u2019s not set in a city or anything like that, it doesn\u2019t really age. The other thing is that people are still claustrophobic. So it\u2019s always going to work.\u201d Anyone fancy a spelunk?<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

Read Empire\u2019s full The Descent reunion interview in The Running Man issue<\/a>, on sale Thursday 28 August. Order a copy online here<\/a>. The Descent returns to cinemas in 4K from 24 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the pantheon of British horror, The Descent looms large. 20 years ago, filmmaker Neil Marshall sent six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-100558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}