'The Descent' made me afraid of caves

So far, I’ve tackled subjects of horror that hinge on either the paranormal or extraterrestrial to deliver the fear factor.

These work in the moment, but I find that as an adult I don’t fixate on the scary bad guys like I used to as a kid; I wouldn’t lose sleep for days if I watched “Jeepers Creepers” today.

But, what if the object of fear is a cave?

Caves are already intrinsically scary to me. They are dark, claustrophobic, largely unexplored and unpredictable. Before I had ever seen “The Descent,” the furthest I had walked into a cave was the point that I had to bend my knees to go any further. Any further than that, and I was genuinely afraid I would panic and give myself an asthma attack while underground. No thank you.

So, this movie took my passing fear of caves and turned it into full-blown speluncaphobia.

“The Descent” wasn’t making waves when it came out in 2005, but since then, it became a cult classic. You won’t see it on most people’s ‘Top 10 Horror Movies’ lists because of its ‘B-movie’ vibes, but it’s touted as a great for good reason.

The movie follows the story of the main character, Sarah, who like any good horror movie protagonist has recently experienced profound trauma. One year before the events of the film, her family was killed in a car accident. Her friends thought it would be a good idea to plan a trip to reconnect with her, and help her overcome the tragedy. She and her friends – five other women – traveled to a popular cave entrance in North Carolina.

Things started out normally, but after a while the passage they just left collapsed. While exploring options to get rescued, some noticed that the cave system they were in appeared much less trafficked than where they were before. Juno, the one who planned trip, admitted that she had routed the party through an unexplored cave network.

Things do not get better from here. They go deeper and distrust leads to conflict. They have to set it aside though, because once they discover a new depth of the cave they find out they aren’t alone down there.

The ensuing half of the movie was feverishly intense, with the women constantly under the stress of being pursued by mutant monsters adapted to living in caves. They are still thousands of feet underground with no way out other than to keep going forward and find how these creatures leave the cave.

They constantly have to choose between life and limb or saving their friends or themselves while they scramble up and down the walls of inhospitable caverns, facing their own struggles while they battle to survive the mutants.

I’m never going to go into a cave again, and it’s because of this movie.