[4.50/10] Beneath the Darkness (2012)

Beneath the Darkness (2012)

Brief review: It's something of a tradition Hollywood to release bad horror movies at the beginning of each year, and Guigui's "Beneath the Darkness" is no exception. Although it has its moments of tension and suspense, those are followed by moments of silliness and contrived 'yeah, right' scenes of ridiculously improbable situations. The story fails to make any impression, simply because we've seen it all before, and the entire script is so predictable, you'll think of yourself as a cinematic psychic or something. Technically and visually, "Beneath the Darkness" is nothing to write home about. The pacing of the film is pretty smooth and the editing is competent, which makes the movie very easy to watch, but Martin Guigui hardly shines with any great directing skills or clever ideas behind the camera. Set in a small town in Texas and completely lacking in visual effects, the production values of the film are so low, you can't help but wonder, what did they spend their $7 million budget on?! The acting is surprisingly decent. Dennis Quaid is quite intimidating as the creepy mortician, who's twisted passion is to bury people alive, and if it wasn't for him, the film would have unwatchable. Tony Oller is okay, if a bit stiff, as the Travis, and Aimee Teegarden gives a solid performance as the charming Abby. Sadly though, all these satisfactory performances can't make up for the sub-par, lackluster execution of this movie.

Overall summary: Well-paced and mildly entertaining, yet too obvious, predictable and unoriginal, Guigui's "Beneath the Darkness" is a rather mediocre horror thriller with a made-for-TV feel to it, that needs to be buried deep in the ground much like the victims in the movie.