Film Theory: The Crawlers Weren't The REAL Killers In The Descent

It's when Sarah attempts to shimmy through the tight crawlspace of the cave that we can pinpoint her full psychotic break. Whilst she's struggled previously with these visions, her panic attack in between two impenetrable pieces of rock when she becomes stuck is the defining moment for her fractured mind. She's trapped, forced with fight or flight, and she can't run so chooses the other, violent, option.

We actually see Sarah kill two people in the film too back this idea up too. Juno, who looks terrified of seeing her when Sarah turns up again, and a mercy killing of Beth: so we know Sarah's capable of taking people out whilst presumably somewhat lucid. We watch later in the film as she's submerged in a pool of blood and emerges a stronger, primal, animalistic attacker - symbolic of the bloodshed she's responsible for. These are the obvious points that lend themselves to The Descent's dual narrative, but there's more too.

Sarah is the first one to spot a crawler, as well as the first one to find signs of their existence in the cave. She's the first to see them on camera, she's the first to really interact with them and is the one we see seeding their existence through finding claw marks and other such evidence. That she's told instantly it's her eyes playing tricks on her is an important bit to note.

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