Beneath the Darkness

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.