The Descent Part 2 (2009)

Immediately pissing away the stark, nihilistic brilliance of the ending of The Descent, this continuation of the story - rather than a sequel per se - has Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) somehow escaping the underground cave system, but stricken with that wonderful Hollywood plot contrivance of "amnesia".

Bizarrely then, while still traumatised and barely able to communicate, she is made to return to the caves by cinema's most moronic sheriff.

Sheriff Vaines (Gavan O'Herlihy) makes Rosco P Coltrane and JW Pepper look like the epitome of law enforcement excellence in comparison.

Every word that comes out of his mouth and every decision he makes - particularly when the expedition is back underground - has you praying for a carnivorous cave crawler to leap out of the darkness and rip his head off.

There are moments that come close to the greatness of the first movie but as this part isn't directed by Neil Marshall's expert hand (he's simply executive producer) much of it feels very artificial.

The story is also riddled with inconsistencies that make you question how much care was taken in the movie's production: - for example, the rescue party is supposedly retracing Sarah's steps into an abandoned mine that links into the cave system, but nobody realises it's all blocked by cobwebs and boarded up, so there's no way she could have come that way less than 24 hours earlier; then the cave mouth off of the crawlers' feeding ground is large enough to drag a dead moose through one moment, then suddenly there's barely enough room for a woman to crawl out to freedom.

Certainly more an adventure story than a straight-up horror, as the original was, The Descent Part 2 is an unnecessary 'sequel' to a classic, but is okay as an hour-and-a-half of subterranean thrills and spills to pass the time on a wet and windy afternoon.