Beneath the Darkness

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.

I was hugely looking forward to "Beneath the Darkness" when it played at the annual Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films during a midnight screening, because I was told – and I eagerly believed – that it was an uncompromising and outrageous horror/thriller that granted Dennis Quaid the opportunity to depict a psychotic and derailed small Texas-town serial killer. Dennis Quaid as a crazed mortician! What avid genre fanatic wouldn't look forward to this? Together with a theater full of enthusiast people, I expected a tremendously high body count, lots of pitch-black humor, perverted undertones and a totally whack Dennis Quaid one-man-show. Things didn't exactly turn out as favorable … I wouldn't go as far to call "Beneath the Darkness" a disastrous film, but it's definitely a bit too ambitious and wannabe intelligent for its own good. Quaid's character Ely Vaughn, the local undertaker who's still highly admired within the community because he used to be a star quarterback in high school, is indeed an utterly disturbed individual but he's not a maniac on a rampage. Quite the contrary, in fact, Ely is a very distinguished person and his dark side only comes to the surface when a couple of school kids decide to sniffle around in his private business. The first five minutes of the film, as well as the final fifteen, are very entertaining and exciting, not coincidentally because these are the only times that Quaid gets to showcase his evil grimaces and madman capacities. Everything in between is just an overlong series of clichéd and derivative situations. Of course nobody believes the teenagers when they're accusing one of the most prominent town members of being a psychopath and obviously the cheerleader beauty will gradually fall for the outsider nerd instead of her cowardly jock boyfriend. And then I'm not even talking about the pointless sub plot of the nerdy kid who still feels responsible for his little sister's death ten years ago and the difficult relationship with his mother. That was completely irrelevant and downright redundant. In spite of being the big star of the picture, Dennis Quaid actually has surprisingly little screen time and – frankly – nearly not enough chances to illustrate the craziness of his character's persona. This is one giant missed opportunity, to say the least.

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.

As also mentioned from other reviewers there are similarities between Mr. Brooks and this film. If Mr. Brooks is a Crime/Drama/Mystery film, this film cannot be a horror film, because Mr. Brooks has definitely harder scenes as this one. I don't know if the makers of this movie claim that they filmed a horror movie. If yes then it is a really poor horror film and you will be disappointed as a horror movie fan. But if you watch it as a Crime/Thriller it is watchable and not a waste of time. It depends on what your expectation is. In marketing the product must be declared correctly: if you declare horror in a product, horror must be in the product.

In the music business there is a genre named easy-listening, translated into the movie business I would say this film is a "easy-watching" film: not bad and not really good.

Nearly lost the will to live, as they say, watching this movie. I don't know if Quaid needed the money or what, but this particular film bored me to tears and wasn't believable. I know, movies are movies, it's not real, but emotive acting does help. Predictably boring all the way through.