FrightFest 2009: The Descent: Part 2 review

Deeper underground? Not exactly. Serviceable enough on its own terms, The Descent Part 2 fails to up the ante on Neil Marshall's 2005 hit.

Comparisons to Aliens are misplaced, despite survivor Shauna Macdonald's Sarah evoking the haunted, hardened Ripley of James Cameron's '86 follow-up.

Where that film felt bigger and beefier than its predecessor, this plays like a virtual remake - only this time we already know what the bat-faced Crawlers look like, so it's just a matter of waiting for them to strike.

Replacing Neil Marshall at the helm, Jon Harris delivers a steady string of shocks and puts his cast through their paces, caking them in blood, mud and worse

Some of the splatter is sensational - though frantic editing renders it occasionally hard to tell what the fuck just happened.

The film's graphic gusto kept a packed FrightFest crowd cheering. Shame, though, that you could count the fresh ideas on the fingers of one blood-gushing stump.