These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: The Descent
Alternate Character Interpretation: Some see Sarah as a sympathetic and crazyWoobie, while others see her as a evil psychopath who committed an unredeemable act. Some see Juno as a flawed but ultimately heroic badass, while others see her as the selfish bitch who got all her friends killed by taking them to the wrong cave and practically murdered Beth.
Question: What would you do if your home was invaded by a bunch of weird-looking giantesses with insanely advanced technology who were impossible to communicate with?
Better on DVD: Played straight and subverted at the same time. On one hand, there is a lot of detail and scenes that you can't really enjoy as much unless it's on a huge high def cinema screen, but on the other hand, there's a lot of subtle things in the scenery and with character interactions that you don't notice the first few times you see it.
Hell Is That Noise: The Crawlers' screeches, and the disembodied child's laughter that Sarah keeps imagining.
High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Oh my god. Does caving sound like a fun activity to you? You probably shouldn't see this movie then.
To play on this, an Austin area theater company held a special showing of the movie. In a cave.
The crawlers, especially their first appearance.
Moral Event Horizon: For some, Sarah crosses this when she impales Juno's leg with a pick and leaves her for dead, after learning that the latter not only left Beth for dead and lied about it, but she was also having an affair with her late husband. (Although, to be fair, Sarahhad become rather batshit by that point.)
For some others, Juno crossed this when she left Beth for dead and lied about it. It's kind of a touchy, but much-brought up subject amongst fans.
One could also argue that Juno did this much earlier by tricking her friends into the wrong cave, including a novice, or that her affair with Sarah's husband qualifies.
Uncanny Valley: The crawlers were originally going to look more animalistic, but when they did the prosthetics tests, they decided it was scarier to have them closer to human.
The Woobie: Everyone gets their moments, although the most prominent example would be Sarah, pre-Ax Crazy.
The Sequel
Moral Event Horizon: How the four survivors were whittled down to three. It's kind of hard to like the women when they would kill each other in a heartbeat in order to save themselves, even if they do change their minds about it later. The three women together could have at least tried harder to save Sheriff Vaines, as opposed to quickly giving up and deciding to slowly and painfully hack his hand off.
Retcon: Juno being alive. Sarah too, sort of - it wasn't as certain as Juno's death, but the implication of the first movie's ending was that she was going to sit there until the crawlers stumbled across her. They could have been following the revised ending where she escaped, except her description of how she got out by following an underground stream would be an even bigger Retcon.
Sequelitis: For various reasons, Part 2 received a much weaker reception than its predecessor. Among these include the lack of the original's trademark darkness (and thus atmosphere) and the tacked-on Shocking Swerve.
Shocking Swerve: The ending. Rios escapes only to be coldcocked with a shovel by the old man at the beginning. With a confused look on his face, he drags her back to the hole and leaves her there.
