The Descent: Part 2 (18)

NINE times out of ten, films get bad reviews for being, well, bad.

But The Descent: Part 2 lands one for being completely pointless.

The Descent: Part 1 (The Descent to its friends) told the story of six female pals who get trapped on a caving trip and must fend off pale-skinned underground gribblies.

It's incredibly smart, cack-yer- pants terrifying - and one of the greatest horror films of the last 10 years.

The Descent: Part 2 picks up exactly where the first film left off and involves our brave survivor (Shauna Macdonald) going straight back into the caves again. As you do.

This time she's with a police escort but it's not long before they're waggling torch beams in the dark and fighting off pale-skinned underground gribblies... again.

It's so samey, the film plays out like nothing more than 1½ hours of deleted scenes from the first movie.

There's no fresh spin on the concept - and because it lacks the original's fantastic set-up, it's only got a fraction of the depth too.

Director Jon Harris (who edited the first film) nicks all of original writer-director Neil Marshall's best shots and set-ups. He might mean it as a tribute - and he's done a fair job of aping Marshall's style - but it just looks unoriginal.

The Descent: Part 2 is what you might call a "love letter" to the first film. Problem is, it's a really weird love letter, smeared in some unknown substance with what looks like hair and teeth in the bottom of the envelope.

If you've watched The Descent already, you won't get anything new out of this. And if you've not watched The Descent already, just watch The Descent.

OUT WEDNESDAY

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