Panique en eaux profondes

This movie marks the return to that 80's scifi set look we all love and don't miss. At all. Although this is obviously a TV-quality movie I doubt it's possible to make a futuristic indoor movie any cheaper than this with it's few grey walled sets and a few meters of corridor which one soon comes to recognize. Although the movie is dreary and just plain silly, this is not it's major fault. You soon find yourself wondering how blatant a ripoff you can get away with when the plot, clothes and scenes are taken from the 80ies movie "Outland" with Sean Connery.

Save yourself the time and money and rent something (anything) else.

After midnight, having a bout of insomnia, I see Dean Cain in a Outland knockoff that only lacks the production values, plot, visual effects and acting.

Basically, a very bad "Outland" under water. The concept has some merit. Instead of vacuum, think extreme pressure and its related dangers. Of course, because of the obvious low budget, they couldn't really develop along those lines. Dean Cain does what he can with what he has. Regarding production values, I think there was one visual effect that was interesting.

Typically, I really enjoy campy, grade-B (or less) sci-fi thrillers but I just couldn't do this time. Watch a DVD you have watched more than 15 times, do some laundry, read a book, read a comic book, read a Judith Krantz novel before fall into the trap that is "Dark Descent".

As others have mentioned, this movie is a blatant rip-off of "Outland" - which itself was a rip-off of "High Noon". Still, this could have provided some decent exploitation entertainment. But except for a somewhat cool sequence involving someone getting hit by water, there is absolutely NOTHING fun or even momentarily distracting in this particular telling of the story. Low production values hurt, but there is also no sense of fun, no zip, no energy here. Not even worth seeing for free when it comes on cable.

Here's some advice for aspiring filmmakers: the total lack of a budget does not doom you to not making movies, but it does prevent you from making movies that demand good production values. Case in point is Descent, set in an underwater mining colony. Unfortunately, the real set is a bunch of Star Trek inspired sci-fi hallways. The story (what story there is) could have taken place at your public school. Another note to filmmakers: if your story sucks, the set's got to look good! Bottom line: avoid this sorry excuse for sci-fi and rent The Abyss instead.

It was like the writers of this movie found out they had Dean Cain cast and said "Well bugger that then, I think we can get by without a storyline". With so little plot you would think it would be easy to make it coherent and yet there were still holes. Cain is forced to carry the whole movie and while his performance isn't that bad his character lacks any depth and consequently is entirely uninteresting to watch. Low production value shines through as you watch bullets fly off what is obviously plastic tubing. If you like watching people walk people walk around and around in circles, this movie is for you, otherwise don't bother.