2. CLIP 4 – CAVE SCENE
This scene within The Descent
brings a huge emphasis on the
amount of darkness that the
characters are always surrounded
by, and even their surroundings
are only visible by the helmet
lights on the women’s heads such
as the water and rock, which
without they would only have to
rely on their hearing. With this in
mind, it really brings to light the
kind of situation these characters
are in.
The use of darkness and the drips
of water as the main visible
features brings an element of fear
and somewhat claustrophobia as
the characters are surrounded by
both in a very limited space due to
being in a tunnel, adding to this.
Even the “light in the darkness”
feeling is non-existent, even with
3. The shot above of where the infra-red camera
vison is enabled and only bones are visible is the
biggest switch in lighting through this whole
scene, as not only is the surroundings of the
characters fully shown, but the use of the color
green is used again, similar to the hospital scene
at the beginning of the feature which creates a
sense of eeriness and fear once again.
Compared to the infra-red shot of the
camera and the helmet lights, this is the
only other time a different type of lighting
is used that provides a decent amount of
light that shows the expressions from the
character’s faces so we actually get a
sense of how they are reacting to their
surroundings by their facial expressions.
Switching back to the infra-red vision, the
expression of the character’s faces are shown
once again, alongside the first proper view of the
humanoid-like creatures that are down in the
cave with them; the Crawlers. Using the color
green as the highlight to create an element of
fear is further emphasized by the fact that the
rest of the cave is still in darkness and the only
thing visible is the character’s face and the
4. SOUND
Diegetic
- Sound of the women climbing the rocks
(slipping of footsteps/heavy
breathing/clanking of equipment)
- Grunting in pain coming from Holly
- Dialogue from the characters
(fast/panicked/interrogative/exclamatory)
- Bone and rock colliding and sliding across
the surface of the cave as the women climb
- Running/ dripping of the water from the
waterfall the characters are actually
climbing
Non-Diegetic
- No music/additional sound effects being
used to create sense of realism and to
emphasize just how quiet and desolate the
cave may seem as the characters are
seemingly the only ones there
- High-pitched “boom” effect added when
the Crawler appears to create the jump-
scare effect
- Growling and small roar effect added to
make the Crawler seem like a true monster,
apart from appearing as a humanoid
creature
