Going in, you don't want to know too much about the pulverizing, nerve-frying shocks that Brit writer and director Neil Marshall is merciless about unleashing in The Descent. But know this: Unlike Marshall's Dog Soldiers, which focused on guys under pressure, The Descent is all about women facing the freak side of Mother Nature and themselves. Led, or in this case misled, by know-it-all Juno (Natalie Mendoza), the spelunking sextet decides to go caving in Appalachia, a sport unsuited to the weak of heart. Sarah (the excellent Shauna Macdonald) qualifies in that department, having suffered a family tragedy a year before, leaving her with lingering resentments about Juno.

That's the setup. Marshall takes his time at first, letting us watch the dynamic among the women, who all have issues with one another that aren't expressed on the surface. Once lost inside the cave — and they're lost big-time — violence manifests itself in the form of blind, milky-skinned, male predators who attack them out of nowhere with bone-crunching zeal. Are they inbred mutants or the longtime grudges among the women made creepy flesh? Until an overwrought finish out of Carrie, Marshall keeps you guessing with nightmare-making skill. Prepare to be scared senseless, and then, when you think you have it figured, your certainty will be shaken by scenes built to scare you even more.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."