A sequel. I should end my review right there. But in the interest of taking up useless e-space, I'll continue. For me, "The Descent Part 2" had two strikes against it before the opening credits rolled. Director Neil Marshall has not stepped back behind the camera to further his already finished story and the sequel is a continuation of the North American ending. Now, if you're one of the special people who were able to see the original a year, or maybe more before the North American release, you'll know that the original ending is superior in every way. It wraps the story up, and fits in with the rest of the film's bleak, hopeless tone. I'm not sure if studios feel that American's are stupid, or if we are too fragile to handle a down ending, but whatever the case, our protagonist survives. Found running through the woods, caked in blood, she's rushed to the hospital. Found to remember nothing upon initial questioning, the sheriff leading the search for the other missing girls decides the best course of action is to take this woman-in-shock directly back to the place that caused her the trauma.

The original actresses return to reprise the roles of Sarah, and Juno, who is somehow still alive, even though we heard her screaming while she was torn to shreds in the first film. Apparently, in her two days of surviving the creatures in the cave, she's become some sort of commando, hunting down and killing the cave's inhabitants. One of the biggest problems with the sequel is it's pacing. Here, it's as if the director just wanted to get to the killing as quickly as possible. We don't know anything about most of the characters, and we don't care when they are killed off. In the original, you could tell that all the girls were close friends, and you could tell that when one of them was picked off, it effected the rest of the characters. Another problem I had were with some of the special effects. It's as if the special effects team have never actually seen blood before. When characters are wounded, we're treated with an arterial spray of what appears to be Cambpell's tomato soup, in both color and consistency.

It's loaded with problems, some forgivable, some not (random, unexplained twist ending.), but I've seen worse movies, and certainly worse sequels. If you enjoyed the creatures in the first film, you'll probably find something to like about the sequel, just don't expect it to be anywhere close to the brilliance of the original..