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For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience
Beneath (2007)
In the year 2007 you constantly here how the majority of horror films out there are remakes, torture films, or knock off's of something that's been previously done. Although there is some truth to that, there are definitely still films being released that are a tad bit different. "Beneath" is a film that I would classify as being a bit outside of that, which makes it reason enough alone to check it out. It's a solid movie that manages to stand above the majority of the direct to DVD movies being released and in this review I'm going to tell you why.
"Beneath" is the story of a girl named Christy (Nora Zehetner) who had quite the traumatic experience as a teenager. At the age of fourteen Christy is out one day with her sister Vanessa. As they are ready to get into the car to hit the road, Christy asks Vanessa (Carly Pope) if she could drive the car. She explains that their father has let her do this before and of course Vanessa allows her to do so. One thing leads to another and there is a horrible accident in which Vanessa is killed. Now after years of care in psychiatric facilities Christy decides to come back to the town she grew up in because of visions she's having about her deceased sister. Something isn't sitting right with her about the whole thing and everything isn't what it seems. In her search for answers she gets tangled into a strange web of occurrences that she has to figure out are really happening or if it's all in her mind.
We see some solid acting in the film out of Nora Zehetner (who you may remember as the character Hoop in Lucky McKee's 2002 film "May), which makes the film a bit more engaging. Good thing too because there really isn't enough screen time from others to really make their characters more interesting. But there was a lot of ground for her to cover so it's more than passable in the film. There aren't many other memorable characters in the movie, but there are scenes where other actors are important to the flow of the story. The character of Amy (Jessica Amlee) is a solid one from such a young girl. She add's a bit of tension to the story and is a very important part to the overall scheme of things.
Director Dagen Merrill does well in his feature film directorial debut as the movie does have some good shots and camera work and it seemed as if he knew where he wanted to take the film. He was also co-writer on the film and unfortunately that's where this one falters at times. The beginning of the film is quite engaging and the end of it is pretty damn good too. The only problem is that during the middle portion of the movie the pacing is off at times. Thankfully though the beginning and end are good enough to make this easy to overlook. It's a small flaw in the movie, but it's a flaw nonetheless. It has great locations and atmosphere and that also add's to the movies effectiveness. Bottom line is for something that wasn't theatrically released it's very well made. It could have benefitted from having a longer running time as it's only about 81 minutes, but it's still a decent little flick.
Overall though I would recommend horror fans check this one out. It's better than most of the direct to DVD stuff that gets released these days and although it's flawed, it's still a pretty interesting little movie. The acting is good, the direction is good, and the story has some originality to it. The story keeps you guessing up until the final act and the ending is something different than what I expected, and I think if you give this one a chance you'll be surprised too.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
