Interview by Stacie Ponder
Neil Marshall’s 2005 film The Descent was a runaway hit with horror fans who’d been hungering for some mature, gory fare in the wake of countless tepid remakes. The film recounts the tale of six women on a caving expedition gone awry; mind you, "awry" means they run afoul of a race of cannibalistic cave-dwellers and most of the women die horrible deaths. You know how it goes.
Sarah, played by actress Shauna MacDonald, experiences the worst year of her life over the course of the film, to put it rather mildly...
She loses her husband and young daughter in a tragic car accident, then gets trapped in the cave and watches most of her friends get slaughtered by the cave creatures. Then Sarah finds out that her pal Juno was sleeping with her husband. Then she mercy-kills her injured friend Beth before the monsters can devour her. Then she hobbles Juno and leaves her to an awful fate before escaping the cave.
What a bummer, then, that authorities drag Sarah back into the cave to assist the rescue effort in The Descent 2. As you can probably guess, things go about as well as they did in the previous film.
Pretty/Scary caught up with lead actress Shauna MacDonald and talked about the perils of caving, the perils of being a mother and an actress, and the perils of something called The Shit Pit. Warning: there are perils of spoilers below!
Okay, you must have some theories on what exactly the monsters in the cave are. I guess they’re descendents of cave-men...? There are only guesses in the films.
They’re meant to be cavemen who just...kind of...didn’t get out of the cave. Subterranean humanoid...type...things that just were trapped in the cave and they evolved to be able to live and hunt in the cave. However, in Descent 2 they go above ground- in Descent 1 they didn’t go above ground. So that’s kind of changed, they bring the kill down. But wait- they did, they must go above ground, but we didn’t see them...oh God, I don’t know! They’re cave-dwellers. They never go out and that’s why they go blind. (laughs) They’re bat-like. Okay, I don’t really know. They’ve got human blood in them as well. (laughs)
I just keep imagining they’re a group of regular people, hikers or something, who got trapped and evolved, but I don’t know why I think that, because it doesn’t make any sense.
Well, in the time of cavemen they were regular! They were cavemen and women and they got trapped and they evolved. So, you’re right, I guess. It takes quite a long time for all your hair to disappear and your eyes and ears to get like that.
No matter what they are, they’re scary. I think that’s why people responded so well to the first film- it’s scary! It also felt aimed at adults and featured, you know, characters we could care about.
Shauna shushing her co-star Krysten Cummings as they try not to get eaten by bat/cave/monster people in 'The Descent 2'
Yeah, exactly. The thing about The Descent is that you’re invested in the characters- you cared if they lived or died. The ending that everyone but the States got- because it was so bleak, you longed for everyone to live and then you longed for Sarah to get out...and then when she’s NOT out, it’s just devastating. You don’t know how to feel when you come out of the cinema. You feel kind of dissatisfied in the sense that it’s not tied up- I want her to live, and I don’t know if she does now! Neil Marshall worked hard- I mean, he casted well because we are all still mates, so he did a good job with that one- he wanted the friend dynamic to come across. He knew how important it was and how to get the audience to like them, to root for them- you know, even with Juno and Sarah and all their complex problems.
It seems like character development is so rare now, but the investment in them always pays off.
Absolutely, yeah. A lot of the problem now, I’ve learned after some films I’ve worked on, seems to be in general they don’t like wasting time on character and development. So you find that when you go and see a film that you’ve been in, that your back-story has kind of been trimmed. If you’re not pushing the storyline forward, if you’re not moving the scene forward- you’re talking about the past or if you’re just sort of in the scene and you get closer to another character, it does get trimmed because they need the action to move forward. A lot of times, it’s there in the original script but it doesn’t make the big screen. I don’t know who’s making these decisions, because they’re bad decisions- because nobody cares.
At least the women in The Descent seemed like they were friends. Horror movies almost always have a group of people who are supposed to be friends, but it plays like they all hate each other.
You’ve got to know what the characters have to lose- what it means for them to die, for their friend to die. It needs to mean something. I guess I can only speak for myself, but you think of horror as a genre that’s all about the scares and the shocks and the blood and the guts, but its not- it’s not about that at all. It’s about the journeys of the characters and the fear of death. It plagues everybody in their life, and people find a way to get over that in all sorts of shapes and forms, whether its religion or just being a total adrenaline junky and you’re chasing that feeling of being close to death, you know, when you feel the most alive. The fear of death is really interesting. It drives everybody.
That definitely came across for me in both films. The claustrophobia and fear characters experience when they’re trapped somewhere- that panic they’re feeling when they know they’re probably not going to survive. I found myself thinking, man, I really don’t want to die.
Well, it goes back to the story of the first film, my choice about Sarah’s big gripe with Juno was not just that she was fucking her husband, but also that she left Beth to die on her own. That’s when you’re most vulnerable, when you’re dying. And when you’re being born, I guess. Being born and dying, that’s it- tricky parts of your life. To be left on your own...so the end of The Descent 2, I go back. I know Juno’s a goner, but I don’t want her to die on her own. ‘Cause you know, she’s my friend and she shouldn’t go through that alone.
I really loved that Sarah and Juno reconciled so quickly in the movie. They just dealt with their issues and moved on.
Yeah. Well, they kind of need each other to get out. When we read the script- and we never really shot it- we were sort of these hobbling fools, her with her broken leg and me with my busted arm. When we got to the fight sequence, I really wanted something where she used half her body and I used half my body and we’d make a whole person. I guess it would’ve been a bit too action-y and too comical, but the idea in my head was that we needed each other to get out of the cave and we were, to a degree, using each other. Well, up until the point where your friend dies or is attacked or when Juno gets disemboweled and I realize “Oh shit- okay, I actually...God, I really like you! We could’ve got out ages ago if I hadn’t put a pick through your knee!” (laughs)
Shauna, as Sarah, ends up right back where she got AWAY from thanks to this dipshit
I wanted them both to make it out alive. I really didn’t want Sarah to die after all that.
I know, it’s funny. My husband was really mad as well. But I said to Jon (Harris, the director), “If you’re going to kill me, you’ve got to give me a really good death.” They did give me a good death, but they couldn’t afford to...I was like, wait, hang on- where’s my body double? Where’s the dummy where you see my arms and legs being torn off and the blood bursting and my head being cracked open? They went, “Uhh, the budget, we can’t…” (laughs) Oh well. We did it actually in ADR, where we put the additional dialogue on it. We did actually have me voice my death- I was, like, what are you talking about? “We want sort of gargling and screaming and yelping and barking as she’s torn apart…”
Ow...ow! Hey, that hurts!
Yeah, like, eee! Eeee! Ow! But uh, it didn’t make the film. We don’t hear her mauled to death by crawlers. Or was she? You don’t see it...
Is there a Descent 3 in the works?
Well, who knows. People are open to that idea, yeah. But not officially, you know, it’s all gone very quiet. I think people have moved on- you know, the people who make the films.
Was the second film planned from the start? The first one works so well on its own…was the sequel always intended, or was it more “Hey, the first film did really well..."
Yeah, it was one of them. Neil Marshall, although he was heavily involved, he didn’t write the second film. He said he didn’t want to invest in telling that story because he was off doing other projects, but he wanted, obviously, to be around to oversee it and to guide it if it needed guidance. So yeah, it wasn’t from the get-go, he wasn’t dreaming about it. It ended when Sarah was in the cave for him. It was when we started to win awards, funnily enough, when it was “Ah ha! Hey, we could go further with this.” But with The Descent 2 he was on set. He wanted it. It was like My Two Dads sometimes. Did you ever see that sitcom?
Yeah, the one that’s like, “I slept with a bunch of guys and I don’t know who the father of my child is!” Great idea for a family sitcom.
It’s hilarious.
As you mentioned, the cast of The Descent really bonded. Was it different during Part 2? Was the shoot bigger or less intimate?
It actually felt just as intimate because we had the same number of cast members. The difference was, it wasn’t all girls in our early 20s going crazy and going off to Scotland. It was a mixed bunch, but it was just as close-knit. I got very close to Krysten Cummings, who plays Rios- you know, in all my scenes we were together. Also, we shot in summer, which made a huge difference to everybody’s mind...not that we were on a downer for the first, but it just kind of seems really hard work. You know, when you get out of work and the sun is shining, it always makes a difference after you’ve been in a cave all day.
Another thing, for the first film we were filming most of it out at Pinewood (Studios) and it’s miles away and the traveling involved in London and traveling to studios is just…ugh. God. You know, it takes up two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, it’s horrendous. I was living quite far away…but for the second film, I was living in Scotland so they got me a flat. Literally, it was a seven-minute walk and I could be in my dressing room. The joys of returning to a film! That made things a bit more joyous, being able to walk to work in the daylight and the sunshine makes things better because you know you’re about to torture yourself. This poor person who’s had the worst year of her life- you fight crawlers all day so it’s nice to walk to work in the sun.
And to have your family right there.
Oh yeah, exactly. And then have a social life. Because when you’re filming in London, generally, you don’t have time. Certainly you do for your family, but that’s it. Actually, there was something interesting on the radio today- I guess you would appreciate this- in the last couple of years, 5,000 actresses in Britain have dropped out because you can’t be a mom and an actress because of the hours. It’s just ridiculous- and also with the child care situation. The studios don’t have crèches and all this stuff. It’s really tricky. So for The Descent 2, had they not got me this flat, I don’t know how I would have gotten out of it, but it would have been very tricky for me because my baby was only one at the time. To be a happy camper on set, it’s really hard for actresses who are mothers. People don’t take it into consideration, when you have kids. People seem to think that because you choose to have a child, you should just shut up and deal with it and your child should just shut up, too. It’s very peculiar. I don’t quite know how it’s gotten there.
Then there’s the physical toll of being a mom...it must be exhausting.
It’s funny. It’s such a head-fuck anyway, growing something inside you- it’s such a mind-expanding thing. Then you go back and you’ve got to accept that you are a different person- in a good way, because you’ve grown something and it’s come out of you and now you’re solely responsible for that person’s wellbeing- oh my God. And yeah, the practicalities of just being knackered...even just going to auditions, I mean, it is just a big logistical nightmare sometimes for me. I’ve got two kids now, and my agent phones and says “Oh yeah, we want you to go down tomorrow to this reading in London.” I’m like “Oh yeah cool, great, I’ll be there- must say yes, must say yes, must say yes…” Then I think oh God- Mum, can you help me? Or I take the kids with me and they’re waiting in a random café outside with my mate. Oh, the glitz and the glamour.
I have to mention the big pool of poo. Poor Sarah- poor you, in the first film you’re submerged in a massive pool of blood and chum, and in Part 2 you’re in a massive pool of poo.
That was my least favorite. It was a laugh, it was brilliant fun to do, but when I read it and it was called “The Shit Pit”, I was like, oh boys? Are you joking me?
I wonder what kind of pool you’ll end up in for Part 3. If Sarah lives. I’m going to start a rumor you’ll be back for The Descent 3.
Yeah, you should, because I’d love to do it. Listen, we’ll try to get it in the cinemas in the states. That would help.
I saw the first one in the theatre. It was a hit- why release the sequel only on DVD?
I don’t know. Someone’s wrong choice along the line.
Well, I can mention that in the internet petition I’m going to start for The Descent 3. I hear those petitions are very effective.
I’ll start one too. I’ll create a different name for myself and we’ll drive it forward.
