Movie: Beneath the Darkness
Release Date: January 6, 2012 (limited)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Director: Martin Guigui
Screenwriter: Bruce Wilkinson
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Aimee Teegarden, Tony Oller, Devon Werkheiser, Brett Cullen, Stephen Lunsford
Genre: Thriller
Official Website: BeneaththeDarknessmovie.com
IMDB Rating: 6.2
Story: With its small-town setting, and teens in jeopardy from a particularly unhinged professional, “Beneath the Darkness” has a bit of the feel of one of those last-gasp `90s slice-and-dice movies, like “Dr. Giggles” or “Ice Cream Man.”
Unfortunately, unlike those films – which were occasionally so-bad-they’re-good – this one is just so-so.
Dennis Quaid – who either had a free weekend after shooting “Footloose,” or lost a bet – is a small-town Texas mortician who, apparently has not always been scrupulous about making sure his clients are dead before he closes the coffin.
But then some high schoolers start, er, digging around. And what they unearth is unpleasant – and could be fatal.
The story is competently told but there’s not much here – unlike “Buried” or “Kill Bill 2,” the screenplay gets nothing out of the claustrophobic terror of being locked up in that narrow grave, and the “mystery” is obvious from the start.
And as for guilty pleasures, few are to be found. There’s not nearly enough blood-and-guts for the gorehounds, and Quaid strictly goes through the motions, never rising to real menace (or descending to the delightful camp that could make this a midnight movie).
Actually, the film’s not bad so much as it is merely mediocre, with our four bland heroes – the stereotypical Cute Girl, Sensitive Guy, Joker Guy and Guy Who Gets Killed First – breaking into the villain’s scary house for no good reason. When bad things start happening, they’re the only ones who are surprised.
Cute Girl is played by Aimee Teegarden of TV’s “Friday Night Lights,” who also helped produce. Why, I have no idea. (This is a career move?) Quaid sings a couple of bluesy songs on the soundtrack. You wouldn’t hear any worse at a local bar. Everyone else is forgettable.
Still, at least some scares surround this production. The director’s next project is, reportedly, “Raging Bull II.” Now that sounds like an unearthly terror.
Link Of Full Movie Video Comingsoon........
Post a Comment