Inside the Darkness - Ruhe in Frieden

A horror/thriller starring Dennis Quaid looked a decent prospect on paper however from the start it was pretty clear this would be no masterpiece. It reminded me quite a bit of Disturbia but this was nowhere near as good or well acted as that film.

Dennis Quaid is a decent actor but unfortunately this is not one of his best efforts and I found him way over the top and unbelievable in this role. The supporting cast are no more than adequate at best.

There are a few tense moments but the plot jumps all over the place and so these moments are not enough to sustain interest throughout the film.

This film may appeal to younger teenagers but older viewers will have seen this all before and done far better. Overall this is a disappointing and distinctly unmemorable film.

I looked at the IMDb rating, thought I would give this movie a go.

What a waste of time! It is like watching paint dry or waiting for grass to grow. A complete waste of 90 or so minutes.

How anyone would dare to compare this pile of junk to Jack Nicholson in the Shining beggars belief.

This movie is not fit to lick the boots of that movie.

The characters are 2 dimensional, who thought this garbage up? Do yourselves a favour - go and watch The Shining, this isn't worth a dime, it was actually painful to try and sit through the movie. It certainly isn't horror, and it is barely a movie.

Four high school kids come into some bother when they cross paths with the local Mortician/whack-job. When one of them gets murdered it's up to the others to prove the morticians guilt.

The movie follows a lot of the classic thriller trappings and pitfalls. No one believes the kids story despite the obvious weirdness of the mortician character played brilliantly by Dennis Quaid with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Useless cops neglecting to follow up any evidence and of course the kids parents not listening to anything they say. Despite all this it still manages to entertain. There are some very funny cheesy lines in there some quite tense moments too.

There are some pointless parts like the main teens back story which never really amounts to anything and the fact we never get to see the teachers reaction to one of the bits of story that is eventually revealed (one that if you're paying attention you'll know before any of the characters in the movie do). These small problems aren't really enough to ruin the movie. There are some great moments in there too. Like when you find out what the kids had seen going on through the window as well as Some of the morticians one-liners.

The main cast do a pretty good job, everyone is very capable. Obviously Dennis Quaid stands out. Finally embracing a role that revels in madness. I always thought that a lot of his characters had a kind of wild edge to them and it was great for me in this movie to see him let that edge take over.

The movie looks great and professionally filmed. Sound design is spot on. Technically you can't fault it.

Strangely there seems to be a lot of hate for Beneath the darkness but If you're willingly to let it, this movie can be an enjoyable ride.

It's not a fantastic movie, but is actually surprisingly engaging. It has a much more sophisticated story than I expected considering its focus on these high school kids.

I mean, it's not the most complex story, but I was expecting a straight up slasher flick. In my opinion, the casting of the kids was bungled because they are all too good looking and kind of equivalent, creating that slasher expectation of disposable teen red shirts.

Back on the plus side, the young actors do a reasonable job. Not Oscar level, but I never felt they were phoning it in.

The biggest problem here is actually Quaid. It's not his abilities, it's just he's playing in a completely different movie than everybody else. He's pretty much playing it as a spoof or comedy.

"Beneath the Darkness" was a great movie in some ways, but also a somewhat mediocre movie in others. It was like taking a trip back to the late 1980's or early 1990's story-wise. Personally I found the story a little bit too far fetched for my liking, as I didn't think that any rational and sane person would return to the house after seeing a friend killed. But hey, wouldn't be much of a movie if they didn't, eh?

The story in "Beneath the Darkness" is about a couple of young people who break into a mortician's house as they believe it to be haunted. And seeing silhouettes dancing in the window just adds to their belief that something ghostly is going on. But the Ely mortuary holds a dark secret past.

I enjoyed the movie, well most of it anyway. Right up until you find out about the reason for Ely's behaviour and what caused him to do what he does. That was just a rather silly turn of events in my opinion, and it didn't really do justice to the movie. But to top it off, the movie had to end in a very laughable manner. I will not reveal the ending here, but personally I found that ending to be one of the worst endings to an otherwise alright thriller.

What I really enjoyed most in the movie was Dennis Quaid's (playing Ely) performance. He was really doing a great job coming off as the somewhat psychotic and disturbingly creepy mortician. (Right up to the ending, that is.) And the people they had cast for the roles of Abby and Travis, played by Aimee Teegarden and Tony Oller respectively, also did good jobs.

There weren't all that much suspense to the movie, sadly enough. And it was a fairly straight forward and well-paced movie, just with a couple of odd twists here and there. I think that "Beneath the Darkness" could have been a much better movie with some improvements. But all in all, it was an alright enough experience (right up to the ending).

I am giving "Beneath the Darkness" a 5/10 rating only because it was lacking suspense and because the ending was just downright ridiculous.