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.

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.

"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.

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.

Dennis Quaid plays a creepy mortician in a central Texas town. A group of teens decide to trespass his abode for thrills and everything goes awry.

Quaid and cutie Aimee Teegarden head the cast, but it's Tony Oller who shines here as the troubled protagonist. He's reminiscent of Robby Benson.

As noted in my title blurb, the story is akin to a Scooby-Doo yarn, but realistic and without the dog. Although Quaid is over-the-top and somewhat campy as the villain the rest of the cast play it straight. I was surprised by the dramatic score and a few really touching scenes.

Some complain that the subplot of a dead sister and a ghost sighting goes nowhere, but it's there for a reason, just think about it.

Although there's some realistic cussing there's zero raunch.

I was pleasantly surprised by this little film. It's classy, sometimes moving, mysterious and thrilling.

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and shot in Bastrop & Smithville, Texas.

GRADE: B+/A-