O Monstro Embaixo da Cama

It is my admiration and fascination with the horror genre that drove me to pick up "Under the Bed" and sit down to watch it, especially since I didn't know what the movie was about or who starred in it. All that I had seen was the movie cover, and it was more than enough to get my attention.

It turned out that "Under the Bed" had a rather interesting and entertaining storyline. I had initially thought that given the title of the movie that it could be a cheesy horror movie, but I was glad to be proved wrong. The storyline here was rather good, and director Steven C. Miller and writer Eric Stolze had managed to put together a clever storyline and one that kept the audience in the dark - literally.

The movie was actually genuinely creepy, and director Steven C. Miller did a great job in building up the suspense and the dread throughout the course of the movie. And the climax when the creature was finally revealed was actually quite satisfactory.

"Under the Bed" had some good acting performances, and Jonny Weston (playing Neal) and Gattlin Griffith (playing Paulie) actually carried the movie quite nicely.

The creature in this movie was rather interesting, and it was of good design and concept idea. It was a creature that was somewhat frightening and pitiful at the same time. Sure, it was not a creature design that revolutionized the horror genre in any way.

I found "Under the Bed" to be an entertaining movie and it was a good addition to the horror genre.

Two brothers, the older of which has returned home after setting his house on fire and inadvertently killing his mother, must do battle against a man in a rubber suit who lives under their bed. Okay, so it's actually a monster, but, when you see it, you'll probably think, 'Oh, there's a man in a rubber monster suit.' Yes, that's the tone of the film.

Naturally, the boys' parents think they're crazy and their dad is a complete idiot at all times (whether they're talking about monsters or asking for a drink of milk, he seems to find it in himself to start shouting and threatening to lock everyone in their rooms forever... or something like that – in short, he's a douche). Then you have your clichéd bullies who think he's crazy and they live next door (do you get the impression this film is lining up plenty of characters who are going to fall foul from the thing under the bed?). But it's not all bad news for the older brother... no sooner has he returned to his home town then he's met the one hot girl who finds surly, reclusive arsonists who ride BMXs really attractive. So there you have your 'love interest.' Yawn.

The film starts off slow. I'm guessing this is to 'build tension.' But it just involves things moving in the house. Personally, I've never found a washing machine's door shutting by itself that horrific.

Yeah, there's a climax and some funky coloured lights here and there. They even throw in a chainsaw by this time to try and spice things up, but, by now, do you care? I didn't. It's not terrible, just nothing remotely new enough to warrant me paying it any real attention.

http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

UNDER THE BED is nothing more than an unwelcome attempt to update that classic child-in-danger horror sub-genre of the 1980s. Back then, a wave of good and not-so-good movies along the lines of THE GATE and MONSTER IN THE CLOSET depicted kids battling against the worst nightmares of childhood, fighting off supernatural beings and their disbelieving parents at the same time.

UNDER THE BED is such a film that tells a very similar storyline, but unfortunately the execution is lacking. This is a surprise given the director is Steven C. Miller, who also brought us the excellent home invasion horror flick THE AGGRESSION SCALE. For some reason, he decided to tint UNDER THE BED a deep shade of blue, so everything that happens is blue-tinged. It's a depressingly predictable look and one which saps vitality from the production.

Not that there's much there to begin with. This film is saddled with a dull backstory, some boring main characters (the angsty teenage character is a walking cliché) and way too much small talk to be much good. Sure, there are a handful of fun moments involving rubber-suited monstrosities, but the tension just isn't there and such moments fall flat. What a pity.

This movie smells a lot like "Phatasm". Instead of the tall man and the flying spheres you get a smoke machine and a hunchback in a foam-covered wetsuit. There's also an evil dimension with a lot of coloured lamps and sheets. The biggest win however is the angry dad character, whose crowning achievement is the "grow the f.#k up" speech towards the middle of the film. It's hilarious to see him respond to his children in the way that he does. Basically it goes something like this: child: "A demon ate our mommy." Dad: "Get a job." I can't believe the actors went along with dialogue this bad without protesting or at least laughing.

The script could have been written by a pre-school student. Ooh there's like a monster under the bed and you have to sleep on cupboards. You can't touch the floor. And sometimes like the washing machines kind of wobble when it's mad. If you could judge this movie by normal standards I would say one out of ten, but how can you apply a normal scaling when a movie has become so bad it's good? Also to be fair the crew did a good job with the low budget they had for the monster scenes. Especially the heads getting ripped off.

This movie makes "The Hole" (3-D) look like "Citizen Kane". What am I trying to say? That for adults this will probably not work at all. While the mixture of the Hole (targeting adults and kids in a Horror movie) might not have worked all the time, it did achieve something. The movie right here has a lot of flaws, some of them being the giant holes in the story itself.

In Horror movies we are used to characters doing irrational things, but the movie almost seems to have the goal of topping even the most ridiculous of your expectations. What I really liked was the very moody beginning. And I guess if you are in the right age and/or not familiar with Horror movies, this might actually scare you a little. But if that doesn't apply to you, I suggest you use your time for something more satisfying.