HORROR FILMS often have a strong undercurrent of misogyny running through them, where women characters serve solely as objects for men to rescue, have sex with, or watch get mutilated, blown up or crushed. Any dialogue the women tend to have often consists of bloodcurdling screams in the distressed-damsel mode or tough talk of the ball-busting variety. Not so with “The Descent.”

Starring Natalie Mendoza, an Australian actress who is half Filipina and half German, this UK production (newly released in the US) not only surprised me by being exceptionally good but also because it dares to show strong, multidimensional women in a setting normally inhabited by men. (That the setting is a cave should delight the Freudians out there.)

Directed by Neil Marshall, who brought us the grossly underrated “Dog Soldiers” (2002), “The Descent” centers on a cave-diving expedition undertaken by six women that goes spectacularly wrong when they’re trapped by an avalanche. Instead of the carnage-with-dialogue of most horror movies, you actually feel for these women who must claw their way through the hell known as subterranean Appalachia, stalked by the secrets they keep from each other and by a mysterious breed of predators called crawlers.

Watching the women test their physical limits and their friendships, I didn’t feel as though I was watching a character written as a male played by a woman, or a female character written by a man who thinks that’s what women sound like. Instead, it was if we were seeing real people with strengths and flaws (including mental illness, jealousy, mistrust, mother-daughter issues). Don’t get me wrong. We’re not watching a touchy-feely, creepy-crawly version of “The Ya-Ya Sisterhood.” This is a horror film and it is gory and visceral when it needs to be. Much like “Jaws” kept you out of the water, “The Descent” will keep you out of caves (that is, if extreme spelunking is your thing).

What I really appreciated about “The Descent” is that you can follow the terrifying developments from several points of view. In addition to the main character, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), who suffers from a mental breakdown, there’s Juno (Natalie Mendoza), the expedition’s mercurial daredevil leader. For much of the movie, I found myself more engaged in Juno’s story, which I can only describe (for fear of giving too much away) as a twisted tale of atonement, a bid to redeem herself for betraying her best friend.

As Juno, Mendoza conveys strength, charisma and emotional complexity, never once caving in, as it were, to US-style stereotypes of Asian women. And frankly, she kicks major ass when it comes to fighting off the predators if not her own demons. Mendoza has previously appeared in small roles in “Farscape” and “Moulin Rouge,” but given her performance here, we’re eagerly awaiting her ascent.