Beyond the bad dialogue, dull as hell storyline and bland characters my biggest issue with Beneath the Darkness is that it offers nothing new. The entertainment value is at a minimal and the plot is so predictable that you’re more or less biding your time until the thing is over to move on to something else. I guess if you’re a fan of either Dennis Quaid or Aimee Teegarden then maybe it’s worth renting, otherwise just pass this on by.
Beneath the Darkness (2011)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Suspense, Thriller
Image | R – 96 min. – $29.97 | February 28, 2012
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Martin Guigui
Writer(s): Bruce Wilkinson (written by)
Cast: Aimee Teegarden, Tony Oller, Stephen Lunsford, Devon Werkheiser, Dennis Quaid
Theatrical Release Date: January 6, 2012 (limited)
DISC INFO:
Features: Featurette, Trailer
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.35
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Disc Size: 16.3 GB
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 1.5/5
“Now I lay you down to sleep.” Take heed because this boring and clichéd movie will do just that…
Beneath the Darkness is set in a generic, quiet Texas town (is there any other kind?) where funeral home director Vaughn Ely (DENNIS QUAID) is a respected member of the community… but he has a terrifying secret lying beneath the ground. This is revealed in the movie’s one and probably only good scene when Ely, jogging down the road, catches up with a friend. Ely pulls a gun on him as the two jog down the other way to the town cemetery where he makes the other man dig up a grave and when he finally gets to the bottom, opens the casket to find it empty. Surprised, the man is dazed after Ely hits him over the head and soon begins burying the man alive.
After this incident, we get a clichéd classroom scene in which we get an allegory with the topic at hand, and which will come up more than once, as the class is reading William Shakespeare’s “MacBeth”. The teacher, who we later learn is the wife of the man Ely murdered, asks about one of the characters and whether or not he is crazy. It just so happens that we get to hear from each of our four main characters answer this question with our central character, Trevor (TONY OLLER), giving the best answer. I won’t bother running down the other two guys as they seem to be just as bland as Trevor but the girl in the group, Abby (AIMEE TEEGARDEN), is the understanding type and seems to dig Trevor, though for some time I thought she was the girlfriend of one of the other guys…
In any case, I should mention that Trevor has a bit of back-story: when he was younger, his sister had died and at the time of her death, he walked into her room and witnessed some kind of ghostly entity hovering over her. What does this have to do with the plot as a whole? Well, I guess it comes into play at the end, although it’s still unnecessary and adds little to the story or character other than to pad the running time (sans credits the movie clocks in at 90-minutes).
Anyway, back to the so-called plot, the four friends suspect something is off with Mr. Ely whose wife had died years earlier. With the subject of ghosts brought up by Trevor, one of them mentions that they believe there’s a ghost inside Ely’s home and one night they find the guy dancing with somebody through the upstairs curtains, but as Abby astutely points out, the movement is off. Being the curious teens they are, and because the screenplay told them to do so, the four return to confirm what they previously saw.
Their curiosity is even more piqued so they go back (again) and seeing that Ely’s van is gone, they assume he’s gone and so three of them break in through an open window while another keeps watch outside. They go upstairs and finds… Ely’s preserved deceased wife in the master bedroom! They’re freaked out but become even more so when they find Mr. Ely was in fact home!! One could see this coming because a scene before had Ely on the phone with the mechanic who had the van in for repairs. Ely allows two of them to escape but threatens the other by nearly choking him before throwing him down the stairs and crushing his skull, all despite Trevor’s pleading.
Now with his best bud murdered, and nobody in town believing their story especially considering Ely has hidden the body and replaced with a mannequin, Trevor, Abby and the other dude set out to prove Ely is a psychotic murderer but that gets them into more trouble after Ely captures Abby so now it’s up to Trevor to save the day, etc., etc., etc.
Beneath the Darkness is one of those movies that boggle the mind. The story is underwritten, the characters are bland and forgettable and the dialogue is wooden in both style and delivery. Outside of the opening scene there’s not much else in this dull film that really sticks out, even Dennis Quaid gets too over the top by the end in which he breaks the fourth wall speaking to the audience with two words: “I’m sorry.” Well, not exactly, but he should’ve said that…
Aside from Quaid, I can’t hold much against the twenty-something aged actors mainly because the dialogue is so stiff. Aimee Teegarden (who also served as an associate producer) comes out the best possessing both beauty and talent having appeared on “Friday Night Lights”. For his part, Tony Oller I suppose did OK in the male lead but his character is so unmemorable that I couldn’t care less what happened to him (not that the outcome wasn’t assured).
The movie was directed by Marin Guigui whose career has comprised of indie comedy-dramas like Changing Hearts (which wasn’t that bad, actually), National Lampoon’s Cattle Call (‘nuff said), Swing and he apparently is set to direct Raging Bull 2 which I doubt (and hope) never happens. Bruce Wilkinson is the man behind the screenplay marking his debut and while the story had potential, I’ve seen better plotlines in “Criminal Minds” and even “CSI” episodes.’’
Beyond the bad dialogue, dull as hell storyline and bland characters my biggest issue with Beneath the Darkness is that it offers nothing new. The entertainment value is at a minimal and the plot is so predictable that you’re more or less biding your time until the thing is over to move on to something else. I guess if you’re a fan of either Dennis Quaid or Aimee Teegarden then maybe it’s worth renting, otherwise just pass this on by.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5
Behind the Scenes (2:38; SD) is a very short look at the filming of a couple of scenes. This is really one of the more useless featurettes I’ve come across in a long while.
Trailer (1:53; HD)
VIDEO – 2.5/5
The MPEG-4 AVC video codec, while not bad, does tend to look a tad soft at times. The movie is presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and the 1080p HD transfer is dark looking considering a good portion takes place at night and on that front, it makes for a, at best, below average transfer (probably due to poor/cheap film). However, even when you get to close-ups, it doesn’t have much detail level to it. The black levels are not good at all with it looking more gray at times than black.
AUDIO – 3.0/5
The disc features a standard 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and outside of the dialogue which is easy to discern, the other elements like ambient noises or more action scenes come across a bit lower comparatively to other Blu-rays. Now, I’d say this is an OK track but even with a lower budgeted film like this no doubt was, it should’ve been better.
OVERALL – 1.75/5
Overall, Beneath the Darkness is a bad movie all around, the kind you see on the shelf and realize just how far down somebody like Dennis Quaid has gone. The screenplay could’ve used more work but even so, the plot has a been there, done that quality so it’s no wonder this got a real limited release before being subjected to direct-to-video hell.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 02/18/2012
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.