Beneath (2013)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Boring

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I watched this on Syfy Channel On Demand. And, if ever there was a reason for _not_ disabling fast-forward, this movie provides it! This movie was nothing more than a boring hybrid of JAWS and LIFEBOAT, filmed on location in the Naugatuck Valley town of Oxford, Connecticut. With the monster in question being a "mutant catfish" that is all too-obviously a poorly constructed animatron. And with the only "big" name actor in the entire cast being Mark Margolis (last seen as Elias' father on PERSON OF INTEREST)! In short? I might have given this flick five out of ten stars if it had a less predictable ending. Like, say, the two girls being the only survivors _alongside_ Jonny the part-Native American.

RELEASED IN 2013 and directed by Larry Fessenden, "Beneath" documents events when six high school graduates get together one last time, but find themselves trapped on a boat in a secluded lake, threatened by something in the water.This is a "confined location" horror flick with a psychological subtext. Except for the beginning and climax, these kinds of films focus on two or more threatened people in a restricted setting and the mental/emotional struggles thereof. "The Mist," "Wind Chill" and "Prey" are good examples (all from 2007). "Beneath" isn't as good as the first two, but it's debatably on par with the last one. The best part is the first act. Bonnie Dennison (Kitty) and, especially, petite cutie Mackenzie Rosman (Deb) score well on the female front and the director wisely highlights the latter's beauty (no nudity or sleaze). The monster is well-done and is plainly revealed before the first act is over. This shows that the heart of the picture isn't the creature, but the psychologies of the six victims and the hidden hostilities thereof. They're a fun-loving group of friends, but are they really? It's a well-made movie for only $1 million, but I found the second and third acts kinda tedious. Still, the film makes its point. The movie runs 90 minutes and was shot in Oxford, Connecticut (Naugatuck State Forest). Writers: Tony Daniel & Brian D. Smith.GRADE: C

I'm one of those guys who like aquatic horror theme a lot. First I've seen the trailer, which looked fun enough, then I've seen this movie here is rated 3.8, I thought it's an ok-ish rating for a monster movie since most monster movies, in general, get bad ratings. No love for the monsters eh? And we definitely need more GOOD aquatic horror movies! Anyway, I know the general public is picky about movies, so I thought if people rated it almost 4, maybe I could rate is a solid 5? And then I watched the movie. With each step further I could not believe the dumbness of the script. I could see my rating drop to 3 immediately and then to 2, but at the very end, I already knew it was a rotten 1. I was seriously mindblown by the dumbness I was witnessing for each move every character did. It was hard to take in and I was wondering why the actors didn't protest? 'Cause they indeed should protest for having to act out such a dumb script.I wanted to go through the movie and point out all the dumb things, but it's pretty pointless at this point, there are too many and much has been already said about them. It was a disaster man, even if the blood effects and the fish prop was pretty cool it could not convince me to give it a 2 ot of 10, and I rarely give such a bad score to a movie, if ever. But I seriously think this was the dumbest movie I have ever seen, all their effort in my eyes was annihilated because of how bad the script was. This movie is an insult to our intelligence! Given the same core elements this movie had, a skillful writer could come up with a masterpiece of a monster movie, but all these elements were wasted here, this felt like someone gave an expensive car to drive to a toddler!! The dumb moves they make are painful to watch, the characters are all highly annoying, obnoxious, unlikable and stupid, I didn't care one bit for them, and to be honest I wanted them to die. The sooner the better, except Johnny, he was likable, but also stupid. The way he dies was ridiculous, for example, could have just flipped the motor so he could untangle from that ridiculous situation he gotten himself into. That whole situation should have never happened in a decent script. In the end, I have to say the whole movie was a torture to watch I couldn't wait for it to be over. I don't do reviews usually, but as I said this was the dumbest horror movie I have ever seen - script wise so I had to write my discontent down. It was so dumb and retarded it wasn't even fun or scary. And It's not hard to realize that basically, all those kids died totally in vain. They could have prevented each and every death if they used their brain just a bit. But of course, the script didn't allow them to do so. For starters, Johnny could've warned the others and used his ax from the very start, so I was so pissed off that they found it later... It wasn't a pleasant surprise at all. Johnny all of a sudden had written DUMB all over his face. Also, they could've perfectly used one row to get the other row on both occasions, and I got to say the reaction of the the character when they fell into the water was incredibly retarded, most of the time they weren't even in a hurry like they were just chilling there. It felt unreal, too much to stand. I don't know how I made it to the end but this was was infuriating!On so many occasions I was expecting Johnny to jump on the fish holding himself to that piece of wood stuck in it and fighting it like a madman to go out like a hero, but it didn't happen... instead he died later, like an idiot. He didn't deserve to die like this. My advice: Stay far away from this movie, believe the negative hype!

This movie was absolutely awful. I just don't know what to say, but I'll try to list a few of the reasons to not watch this movie. 1. The entire movie, they are the same distance from shore and do not get closer. 2. At one point, they "realize" that they were paddling in circles (in a 200 yard wide lake). 3. They decide to throw people overboard to buy time. After throwing one body and two "friends" overboard, they realize they can make oars out of the seats of the boat. What the hell? 4. Two of the three friends thrown overboard somehow survive only to be later killed in a irritating, nonsensical manner. 5. One of the "friends" gets rapped up by a slow moving rope that is powered by a tiny trolling motor. He falls over and struggles helplessly like in Austin Powers, where the guys yells stop and gets killed by a steam roller. Comedy? 6. How did they even get to the middle of the lake? It doesn't make sense that a monster hungry for human flesh would ignore the large group of loud people until they made it to the center of the lake. 7. The creature eats and eats without needing more than a few minutes to digest the bodies of a person half it's size. How many people does it take to fill that monster's belly? 8. The acting wasn't bad, but the reasoning behind each character's thought process didn't make sense. I feel bad for the actors involved since they actually weren't bad...