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The Descent - Scary As Hell Edition

boon23

boon23

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THE DESCENT - SCARY AS HELL EDITION

This is my second fanedit.
It is my take on the rather great horror movie THE DESCENT.

Details:
82 minutes, NTSC
english

3D_descent.scary_as_hell.cover.jpg


What was done?
-Sarah is not hallucinating:
Sarah is a the traumatized psycho of the group. In a terrible car accident her kid and husband get killed, while she was driving. When the other girls take her on the caving tour she is still not cured. During the movie she has lots of hallucinations and in the grand finale she is living in her hallucination, celebrating the birthday of her daughter.
All of this is gone. She is traumatized, yes, but we don't see why and we never experience any of her hallucinations. Removing these scenes made Sarah more a member of the group and less the focus of it all. Also it spares the audience from the rather dragging and long beginning and it makes the single ending more possible. Removing the hallucinations keeps
the entire movie in reality.

-Juno is a hero
Juno is the heroine of the group, the fighter, the leader with great physical skills and a bit of a lack in social skills. She is responsible for the group getting lost in the cave and she also by accident kills one of the girls. For this she has to pay a great price. Sarah hits her with a climbing hammer, so she cannot run away from the crawlers and is destined to die.
This killing by revenge was for me the reason for this fanedit. It was an accident. Juno is a good guy and she saved more lives than each of the other girls. Killing her like that was totally unnecessary and it felt unfair to me. Yes, she walks away from the dying Beth, although Beth asks her to stay, but still, she is in panic and it is all too much. Her reaction is maybe not nice, but very understandable.
Since I don't want to spoil it all, I will just say: I changed a lot, so Juno can be a hero in the end.

-One ending is enough
Yes, it simply is. The second ending felt completely senseless to me and rather confused me than making me think: "oh brilliant." Now I think I do get the intention of the director, but it did not work for me, so I changed it to one single ending.

What was not done?
I didn't touch the monsters, although my first intention was to reduce their scenes. But with the entire movie in reality, they are just scary, disgusting and cool, even in the scene, when one crawler sits on Sarah and doesn't realize that she is alive.
The monsters appear late, but they do quite intense then.

So finally you get a horror movie, which was improved in my opinion. The original is great, but this one is for sure scarier.

Enjoy.

You must own the original movie to legally watch this.

This will be released as high quality DVD later on on Rapidshare, available through http://www.fanedit.org.

Who am I?
I am 3Raz0r, I like horror movies and I dig fanedits.

now up on the piratebay as 700mb avi.

Maybe downloadable from info
 
wow! I can't wait to see this... and what a cool concept you have to present your fanedits. I really like it.
- same cover art style
- same info style
and you give a lot of info. How often was your HILLS HAVE EYES 2 fanedit downloaded if you happen to know it?
 
Funny thing is, they are going to make a sequel, so removing the more metaphysical ending actually helps to sell the sequel ;)
 
I enjoyed the US theatrical ending much more than the real ending because it sort of reminded me of the first Texas Chainsaw massacre. I agree that it would be great for the hallucinations to be cut, but I don't agree with cutting out the beginning. I also disagree with Juno being the hero, because she seems the obvious choice.

BUT I will still check this out as I love the movie.
 
I'll definitely check this out. I love The Descent exactly as it is, (the UK version) even with the downer ending, but I'd love to see it reworked to make the lead seem less psychotic and Juno portrayed in a different light.
 
I may sound like a hypocrite on this one, but I think you ruined the film. It sounds to me like you just made a "dumbed down" version so that the people watching it don't have to think. This movie is so much more than you can even understand.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 was one thing (cuz the theatrical version sucked!), but I just don't understand why you would take a mindblowing film and create such a pointless edit. It's like the U.S. cut but worse. Juno deserved to be hurt for that bullsh-t she did, and the fact that Sarah was in a halluicination made this film SOOOO much better than the average mainstream horror wannabes that have been coming out. Just my humble (and somewhat p.o.'d opinion).


-HorrorFan82
 
Ok, so I am sorry if I came of as a d-ck above, 3Raz0r. It's not really YOU or the EDIT. I've just been so protective of "The Descent" since it came out in the UK. When it hit U.S. theaters and had the change, needless to say I was outraged! I am a person of "emotion". The original cut of The Descent is VERY emotional, and that's what it is to me, an "emotional" film. I always felt it got "dumbed down" for U.S. audiences because I thought the original ending had so much more power and left you talking about it for days. When it's veiwed as a mere "monster" movie, then it's cool while your watching it, and then you move onto the next modern crappy "monster" movie. I hated the change because people then see the film in a different light and no one here where I live appreciated the film for making them think. Instead, everyone talks of the jump scenes and the monsters. Film is art. The original film was an art masterpiece. It's awesome on SO many levels, and I consider it in the top 3 horror films of the new millenium. 1. House of 1000 Corpses 2. Cabin Fever 3. The Descent. The film reached new levels of meaning and pure terror and it was so ruined by Lions Gate (just like the OTHER 2 mentioned!)

I guess I just was too quick to get upset, but I am still very defensive over this incredible film. I'm sorry for sounding like a jerk, and I'm happy you are editing horror movies....because there's sooo many that need a fixin'!

-HorrorFan82
 
Wow, thats a heated reaction there HorrorFan82! I'm always interested to see when members of the community get really worked up (for good or ill) about a fanedit or a concept. I'm curious though if you have actually watched 3Raz0r's edit yet? By the sound of your post you hadn't and perhaps even don't intend to.

Myself I think that there's no right or wrong fan-edit, as long as the edit achieves what it was set out to do. I don't believe that making an edit can somehow degrade the original. In fact to quote Mike Nichols from his Attack of the Phantom commentary:
"Some people have compared doing this to drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. I disagree, if anything this is drawing a mustache on a postcard copy of the Mona Lisa."
I agree with that sentiment and think that perhaps you misunderstood Raz0r's intentions here. He (she?) make the edit precisely to create a different version of the film, one more suited to what he wanted to see.
Your major factor in enjoying the Descent (anger at the US cut aside) you say is the emotional side of the film, the tragedy of Sarah's loss and Juno's betrayal/culpibility in those deaths and the further events of the film.
Raz0r has stated from the outset that the intention was to remove the tragic backstory from the foreground of the plot and simply make it an impetus for the story's beginning. The decision to make Juno a hero is also a fundemental change to the plot and, if done successfully an applaudable feat of editing. It may not be to your tastes but what i'm suggesting is that perhaps it does not need to be, I think you should try watching it on a technical level and perhaps from there you could give a very valid and interesting review of this work?
 
"Some people have compared doing this to drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. I disagree, if anything this is drawing a mustache on a postcard copy of the Mona Lisa."
great quote! I need to remember that. it is also my opinion about fanedits. they do NO HARM to the original.
 
Yeah I love the quote, which is why I think every majorly changed fanedit should have a commentary to let the editor give the community amazing soundbites.. :smile:
 
In a few weeks I will have some more free time, then I can watch your version of "The Descent" and give more of a technical response.

As for "House/Corpses", it's not SO much the actual film than it is the idea and the original script. The finished film had a lot of flaws, many of which could have been remedied if Rob released the original EXTENDED version. However, you pretty much HAVE to give it props for paving the way for the new wave of Theatrical "Hardcore" horror films. It was the first to make an impact back in 2003, and since then Lions Gate has made a fortune releasing lower budget indie horror films. If "Corpses" hadn't came out when it did, and take the risks that it did, we probably would have no "Cabin Fever", "Hostel", "Land of The Dead", "Haute Tension", etc.

You said you didn't really like "House/Corpses", but how do you feel about the films "Murder-Set-Pieces" or "Haute Tension"? Those 2 round out my top 5 followed very closely by "Open Water" and "The Toolbox Murders REMAKE". That's about it for my fave "theatrical" films that came out post-2000.


-HorrorFan82
 
Finn said:
Yeah I love the quote, which is why I think every majorly changed fanedit should have a commentary to let the editor give the community amazing soundbites.. :smile:
Click to expand...

There's nothing more i would love to do than include an audio commentary for one of my upcoming edits (it is a majorly different edit than the release version), but wouldn't that cause the editor to get sued if their idenity was revealed? In particular, Miramax/Disney. Would someone be able to explain to me why the editor of The thief and the cobbler wasn't prosecuted? How safe would it be to do a Miramax commentary? I have been really wondering about this for a long time.. thanks to anyone who can help explain/clear this up for me.
 
Why would it cause the editor to get sued any more than from having made the dit in the first place? To date no-one has sued Mike J Nichols and he provided commentaries on both Attack of the Phantom and the Phantom Edit DVDs.

Boon has allegedly done commentaries on some of his works(I've not seen those fanedits though) or is planning to do more for upcoming releases.

There's no legal problem associated with adding an additional track of you talking about the film during an edit. possibly a note at the beginning saying that "the view expressed on the commentary track are not endorsed by blah de blah productions etc etc..." would help cover us.

As far as I see it, there's already precedent so there's no problem really.
 
i agree, i dont see how it could be any more incriminating than making the edit. I dont see a problem. it would be nice to have more commentaries on edits. I am looking forward to boons, and I know Galactus & Movealong are going to be incorporating a commentary in the upcoming Bounty Hunter release. I may do commentaries for my x-files edits
 
So wait, which ending does this version use?? The one with the lady supposedly getting out and making it back to her car, or the more negative ending from the UK/unrated version?

Either way, this movie gave me da jibblies... :)
 
i finally got around to watching this, and I'm afraid to say I was unimpressed (sorry).

I watched The Descent when it was first released here in the UK, and can remember thinking i was quite a hardcore little horror film (although I admit ti disliking the British ending), so was looking forward to this film. However, many of the cuts, I feel, also remove some of the depths and motivations of the characters, and ultimatley lessen the film for me.
 
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