20 "Twin" Films That Were In Competition With Each Other

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%/12%

IMDb: 7.2/5.1

Neil Marshall had already nailed the claustrophobia of a siege horror film with Dog Soldiers when he released The Descent in the U.K., a tale of a group of female adventurers' who go on an ill-fated spelunking trip one year after one of them has suffered a major tragedy. In the U.K., it almost immediately made noise, some heralding Marshall as the next big name to watch in the horror genre. And the twisted, bleak ending is less of a twist and more of a tragic, logical conclusion.

Naturally, the U.S. imported it almost immediately and cut out a few precious seconds of the ending, seemingly making it happy, but unsettling.

At the same time, set to be released the same month in the U.S. was The Cave, a similar film about a group of scientists caught in the remnants of a 13th-Century Abbey underground that also plays host to an indigenous species.

The Descent is patient, not even revealing its monsters until the half-way mark. There are some that argue the film's claustrophobic first half is scarier than its monster-heavy second. The Cave, while having a plot that's borderline identical save for the switch from citizens to scientists, is a slog to sit through until its creatures show up.

Whereas the former has well-drawn characters written with a smart, sparseness of dialogue, the latter relies on walking cliches that may as well be items on a buffet line.