Something Beneath

An Episcopalian priest (Kevin Sorbo) leads an ecological conference at a new mountain resort, but some kind of mysterious black oil infects the people, causing hallucinations and death. What's the source of this substance and will any of them survive? Natalie Brown plays the event coordinator, Brendan Beiser a nutty scientist and Peter MacNeill the head of security.

"Something Beneath" (2007) is a creature feature that combines elements of Star Trek's "The Naked Time" (1966), "Phantoms" (1998) and the black oil episodes of The X-Files that started with "Piper Maru" (1996), which played a pivotal role in the series, including the first X-Files movie "Fight the Future" (1998).

Although this had a direct-to-video budget, and it's obvious, it has defined characters, an inventive plot and a relatively entertaining story. Sorbo has his usual charisma as the amiable minister and the subplot of his relationship with Khali (Brown) is well done. Brittany Scobie is on hand as an amusingly haughty "celebrity" while Paige Bannister plays Khali's cute assistant.

The film runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was filmed in Winnipeg with the mountain exterior shots obviously done in the Canadian Rockies.

GRADE: B-/C+

Wow. So bad, that my heart hurts for Canadian cinema... Honestly, I've not seen worse acting/directing in a VERY long time. Why would such a complete piece of garbage ever get made? Who would ever care for it to fill even the least watched time slot on TV???? The writing was completely 2D, the concept beyond a watered down rip off of every thriller that has come before this bomb, such as Tremors, Poltergeist, "It"and so on. The last scene - did they really think that awful kiss was a good take??? For god's sake, all you have to say is "let's try it one more time". Was the director blind? I think this may be the worst movie I have ever seen... The ONLY reason I saw it is because I'm sick with a terrible case of strep and couldn't even reach the converter. Plus, it was so horrible, that it was almost compelling.

What surprises me is not a single mention of all the HP Lovecraft influences from the plot to the name, to the sets. All of it is pure Lovecraft in its theme, setting, events, building horror, all of it is pure Lovecraft in writing and execution. It doesn't need referrals to great old ones or anything else but the way it was crafted and executed is pure lovecraftian horror. I am very surprised no one else has mentioned. If it has been its not easily found. The slime monster is reminiscent of the classic slime monster movies in the past including several black and white monsters. X-the Unknown mainly and to less extent The Blob. The title is classic to the style of ambient suggestive horror. The movie many not have been the best for many reasons but it was good if one likes suspense implied horror rather then graphic bloody.

Just under your feet lurks an evil so deadly, so intelligent, it is scary. The attendees of an ecological summit are about to discover a bigger problem than global warming.

The plot reminds me of "Phantoms", but that may just be me. The film itself clearly has no relation to the Affleck masterpiece. This one is clearly more ecologically-based (and they never stop mentioning tree huggers, global warming and more -- they tried too hard).

What does it say when Kevin Sorbo is the only "name" actor? Maybe nothing, as lots of great films have unknown actors. But when you are seeking a mild celebrity and the only guy you can get to sign on for the project is Sorbo, that may not be a good sign for your movie. (I should stress this was not meant to knock Sorbo, who is quite good in this film. He is just not a name that generally draws in crowds.)

This was definitely intended to be humorous -- right off the bat, there are jokes about a dead guy and the line, "Days without a workplace injury -- zero." I appreciate that, because if you cannot make a scary horror film, you may as well make it funny.

Arriving at a new hotel, a group working to prepare for an upcoming seminar find a strange black goo popping up around the hotel and when it's revealed that the goo can turn victim's fears against them, they all try to get the remaining guests out before it gets them all.

This one here is a really decent film overall. One of the better elements featured here is the fact that this here has a unique creature which is a rather strong plus. This is an amorphous blob that travels along sewer paths that will kill others based on hallucinations derived from their darkest fears is really nice and displays an interesting gimmick that allows for some great fun. There are some rather nice ones, including the completely unnerving and really creepy bathroom hallucinations of the old woman attacking her in the mirrors, the assault in the basement becomes ultra-creepy once the dog becomes involved chasing her around the facility and the highlight is the series of encounters down in the sewers where all sorts of fears are brought out as this one ups the action as well as being completely suspenseful. The evacuation of the hotel and everything that results from it are really fun, where there's everything from the lengthy suspenseful stalking scene in the sewer systems to a major action scene inside the compound where they get to confront the creature inside the middle of the facility to the race to get out, this is full of fantastic moments that really work, giving this one a stellar pace which is quite impressive overall. These here are the film's good points as this one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws. Those are all based around the film's titular creature as this is one of the most non-threatening creatures around in no way should inspire fear. Barely touching it starts a hallucination that will kill a person by their greatest fear, but that isn't done by having the creature lay a physical hand on the victim, and they still can be saved even after touching the creature physically. That the creature has to lure victims down into the basement, despite a size given in the film to be of considerable mass, since it can't really move but expand outward as it's rooted in a particular spot, makes this yet another strike against the creature. That is it's biggest strike, and with all these here against the creature in it the film would've been a whole lot better had this been fixed into a more threatening creature. The film's other minor issue is the heavy-handed environmental message that gets hammered home here, tending to be forced into the proceedings with the subtlety of a sledgehammer which doesn't make for an enjoyable time here. These are what hold this one back.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.