Clearbay_327

An unnamed psychic who lost her gift years earlier is now a charlatan living in rural New York and giving fake Tarot card readings and performing fake seances. She and her 14-year-old goth daughter Echo have a unique and very close relationship, more like friends than mother-daughter. Mother's life is turned upside down when Echo is killed in a tragic drink-driving accident involving a neighbor named Kurt, who then proceeds to cover his crime (the title of the film is from the fact that Kurt has to keep burying the body deeper and deeper). As Mother begins to slowly gain her psychic powers back through a mystical artifact, Echo begins first haunting Kurt and then slowly possessing Kurt. This is the backdrop for the film.

The Deeper You Dig is shot in minimalistic fashion and pays homage to both The Shining and Phantasm and contains familiar themes from several H.P. Lovecraft stories. The eerie setting, the snow, the sense of loneliness creates a sense of dread. This film contains nightmarish phantasmal scenes that depict the dark and unknown side of the afterlife, or the cosmos (if interpreting as a Lovecraft devotee). The antagonist is slowly driven mad, a theme directly from Lovecraft's stories. This all combined is how one can see the influence of Kubrick, Lovecraft, and the creator of Phantasm. The Deeper You Dig is a limited jump scare movie. In fact there are not even lots of traditional scares. Instead, it is a slow-burning, psychological piece with a gory and violent climax and twist at the end.

It's good points far outweigh its flaws... which mainly are that this movie is low budget and has a "film-student vibe". I did not let that stand in my way bur decided to just sit back, suspend reality and just drink it in. For me, the Deeper You Dig a very worthwhile film for a discerning horror fan. Not one that will be burned into my memory but one that was worth the time and effort.

TL;DR Dumb and corny. Kevin James not in the least bit convincing. Joel McHale way to too annoying. Overall waste of 1.5 hours.

This was probably meant to be frightening and tense. Instead it was silly. I could not get past the fact that Kevin James was the major bad guy. And I do not think Kevin James could get past that either because he was not at all menacing. Even portraying as a "violent neo-Nazi" we was not all at very intimidating, or convincingly violent for that matter.

Joel McHale... what can one say? He seems like a nice enough guy, but every line was delivered with an radio DJ's voice or as the host of Talk Soup. Every time I heard him talk I just wanted to fast forward just to get by his lines. Not to mention, his character was making some very selfish and foolish life choices. Made me want to strangle him.

The criminals were way to laughable. There were four total. Kevin James plus two worthless sort of hillbillies were nothing but fodder in the end. The forth was a big giant half mute brute that was supposed to be Kevin James' right hand man. But he was off again, on again, off again, on again with the plan so many times I lost count. And I am not even sure what he contributed in the end one way or the other . I feel his character was just thrown in there to fill space.

The girl who played Becky was cute enough and kind of cool, but are we to believe that a girl this age is so psychopathic that her stepmom to be has to warn the head neo-Nazi that she is coming to kill him in the most cruel fashion imaginable? I mean if so, this kid needed serious psychological intervention and possibly belonged in an asylum.

Overall, it was just dumb and too unintentionally comical to be even have a hint of realism. I kept wondering if the director was just taking the piss trying to spoof us with some sophisticated black comedy but in the end, I fear it was just a bad screenplay and a very low effort.