Beneath Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Christy (Zehetner) returns to her hometown years after a car accident that disfigured her older sister. Haunted by the accident in which she was the driver, she learns that her worst nightmares have either come true ... or are about to.
| Nora Zehetner | Christy |
| Matthew Settle | John |
| Gabrielle Rose | Mrs. Locke |
| Warren Christie | Jeff |
| Don S. Davis | Joseph |
| Patrick Gilmore | Randy |
| Tom McBeath | Mr. Wells |
| Brian Mulligan | Zeke |
| Timothy Paul Perez | |
| John Emmet Tracy | Funeral Home Employee |
| Bruno Verdoni | Hank |
| Jessica Amlee | Amy |
| Nicola Anderson | Debbie |
| Gillian Barber | Donna |
| Heather Feeney | Vanessa Dark |
| Dagen Merrill |
5.60 out of 10 (394 votes)
Visitor Reviews
A moderately pleasant surprise
posted on 20 May 2009When I saw this was an MTV films production I almost put it back on the shelf immediately - but reading the back of the case made me want to give it a chance. I'm glad I did - in addition to starring a cute actress from the TV show "Heroes" there was an interesting storyline with twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Having come off of a run of small studio/independent/low budget horror movie viewings I appreciated the visual and sound quality. The downside is that it tends to drag a bit (rather odd sounding for a running time less than 90 minutes, I know) and although billed as a horror movie I'd say it was more of a suspense/mystery - not much in the way of scares here but if you're receptive to what I've described I'd say Beneath is a worthwhile viewing.
Wow, This movie is surprisingly good!
posted on 04 May 2009I wasn't expecting much, but this movie actually delivered the goods! In this day and age of "torture porn", it was nice to be able to watch a horror movie that actually had suspense, mystery, and and a plot line. Gorehounds, this movie is not for you. But if you enjoy horror mixed with mystery, suspense, and heartbreaking drama, this movie is for you.Pros: Nora Zehetner, "Eden" from "Heroes" really shines in this movie. The rest of the cast is fine, particularly Jessica Amlee as "Amy" and Gabrielle Rose as the mean "Mrs. Locke". This movie has a mystery - not a body count. The score is haunting. The make-up effects are incredible.Cons: The movie could have benefited from better cinematography. You rarely see horror movies shot so brightly nowadays. The camera captures everything you need to see, but it is done in an almost matter-of-fact manner with no flair.
Not the best, nor the worst, but perfectly enjoyable
posted on 29 Nov 2008Anyone who is nitpicking at this movie over ridiculous things such as "do school websites list past students' phone numbers" and "this character would've/should've/could've not let the younger sister driver" should be ignored.Films are made for viewers willing to allow the film to take them where it will. If the film be imperfect, the real film lover will still attempt to see it for what it wanted to be; for what it's actual *point* was. That is, of course, assuming there is one.On the other hand, there will always be the wannabe Sherlock Holmes of film fandom, who will pick at the silliest details as if a movie somehow needs to be a fully provable mathematical truth.Silly.On to the film.I must say, it is a typical thriller with horror elements taking place in a typical old house with typically hidden "creatures" and such, where the main character attempts to uncover a mystery until in the end -- surprise. If you want to understand what this film's atmosphere is like, think of "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "The Others" (with Kidman).Is the movie super-successful at what it does? I wouldn't say so. I will say, though, that it was certainly not a failure either. In fact, "willing viewers," as described above -- in other words, those viewers who have managed to retain their childlike sense of wonder and innocence when they sit down to watch a film -- should be left completely unaware until the final revelation.And let me tell you, mate, if you have any kind of compassion for the characters you see on screen and think the value of cinema lies partly in you allowing yourself to become emotionally involved with them (as opposed to analyzing their every action like some goofs will inevitably always do), you will be horrified at the ending. Bleedin' horrified. Not that it's particularly "scary" in the typical horror film sense, but because of the human suffering and injustice involved.Ignore the yapping cynics and enjoy this perfectly acceptable entry into the spooky-family-in-an-old-house-with-a-dark-secret roster. However, allow me to still add that that if you are looking for a movie along this theme and want one that is *really* well done, watch "A Tale of Two Sisters."
Adams Family Secrets....
posted on 12 Sep 2008Horror flick: girl returns home after traumatic accident earlier in her life and is she possessed and crazy due to the trauma of that accident or is it those around her who are mad? The girl is either a psycho or the only sane one in the asylum. A feast of weird characters are in this play quite apart from the lead. There is the Bett Davis type housekeeper, the child who sees dead people or something like that; there is the sinister male in the house and lets' not forget the deformed and deceased ugly sister who may still be with us....etc Throw in the illusions being suffered by our main star and add in multi layers of other complications then beneath goes even deeper. I almost turned this off a few times only because it had become too confusing, though ultimately all is mostly explained and there are some decent moments. 5/10
Not as low as some.
posted on 02 Sep 2008I was pleasantly surprised when I caught this movie and hope other horror fans give it a chance if the opportunity ever arises. You may groan as the MTV logo appears but, trust me, give this movie a chance and you will be rewarded with some nice, atmospheric scenes and decently creepy moments. Unfortunately, it's still very much a teen movie and I did find myself wishing for some stronger horror as the story unfolded.Christy Wescot (Nora Zehetner) is a troubled young woman. As a teen, she was involved in a car crash that resulted in the eventual, apparent death of her beloved older sister. What causes her troubles? Well, for one thing, Christy was driving the car and survived and, for another thing, she has become convinced through some strange dreams and visions that her big sis was actually still alive when buried years ago. So she sets out to find out the truth, which means causing trouble for her sister's widow, dealing with her niece who seems equally ill at ease and unearthing some secrets that may have been better left unknown.The plot unfolds rather nicely and none of the actors really do a bad job but where the film stumbles is, as mentioned earlier, in it's rather tame approach to the potentially horrifying moments and also in it's unbelievability as Christy manages to get more and more information despite facing more and more obstacles. A shame that the makers seemed to dumb things down slightly for the target teen audience but such is the way of the world.Overall it's good enough for one viewing but nothing that will stay around forever.See this if you like: The Attic Expeditions, Nora Zehetner, the Masters Of Horror series.
What is it Peter Finch said as Howard Beale in 1976?
posted on 01 Aug 2008Answer: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" And if a London-born actor can convey that sentiment about ordinary media slop with such force as to win the only posthumous Oscar for a line he uttered during NETWORK in that most American of years, how can so many "baaaah" like sheep when the foreign plot against our culture is so much further along in the 21st Century? BENEATH is a second-rate Canadian-made horror\thriller with little to recommend it beyond the DVD box art. However, because the characters are ESPECIALLY stupid, the Canadians have pretended they're all Americans, living in Montana (instead of Vancouver, BC, where this propaganda was manufactured). Ten of the 14 comments posted prior to mine originate from Europe or South America, and heap little-deserved praises on this hatchet job. As of today, U.S. and non-U.S. IMDb users "award" BENEATH an identical failing rating of 5.3 out of 10. Yet the elite subset whose comments find their way onto this page are overwhelmingly non- (un-?) American and implausibly ga-ga in their kudos.Why, you might ask, would Canadians cringe to fly their red maple leaf over the populace of BENEATH? 1)A daughter disappears with no warning one day (because she's been murdered by her employer!), and the missing woman's dad and friends never give her a second thought for six years (the audience is supposed to infer the employer was able to forge a couple convincing post cards from the other side of the country, but even Montana has police and private investigators--you can't just enter a few fictitious facts on the internet, and have Google make a professional person from a small town disappear overnight, for gosh sakes). 2)The emergency exits from a mine shaft lead out the chimney places of the mine owner's mansion?! Even if this is a bald-face lie, no real American with a college degree (i.e., Christy Wescot in this movie) could believe such balderdash for a second, no matter how much they had had to drink! 3)An injured wife with a good prognosis (and, remember, she WAS still strong as an ox six years later) is suddenly reported to have died at home by her husband, who then is allowed to seal her in a casket SIGHT UNSEEN by any medical examiner, police officer, or funeral home employee! If that's how they do things in Canada, then just say so. Have BENEATH take place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which probably has a bigger population than the whole state of Montana. But no, the goal here does not seem to be making money in North America, but to have everyone exposed to this ideological filth believe Americans are so stupid they're ripe for another terror attack, United Nations bailout, "ugly American" book, etc. U.S. citizens should write their Congress people, demanding this vision of a counterfeit, idiotic United States stop at our borders. After all, France has outlawed Muslim head-scarves "to protect French culture," and the Germans have long ago banned "skinhead" haircuts. But if you have so much as a corner of a vintage Coppertone suntan oil ad exposed in your vehicle, Canadian border agents at the Blue Water Bridge will detain you for at least three hours while they pile all your belongings on the sidewalk in the rain, perhaps disassemble the van down to its chassis (as other agents go to their break room when it gets too cold for them, and fast-forward through your DVDs such as NURSES IN CHAINS and THE LATE SHIFT AT HOOTERS while swilling hot chocolate floating those little marshmallows on top), and then return your disc's but keep your classic americana artwork, and say you can go without so much as a "sorry for your inconvenience" (or, better yet, a wrench). Certainly we can enact a self-protection law requiring that regional coding for a movie like BENEATH will not play on machines sold here, and that if anyone tries to download BENEATH, they'll get an error message like a Beijinger Googling "freedom!"
Dark Thing
posted on 26 Jul 2008In Edgemont, Montana, the teenager Christy Wescot (Nora Zehetner) is very connected to her beloved sister Vanessa Locke (Carly Pope). On her fourteenth birthday, Christy asks Vanessa to drive her convertible car, but she has a car accident, hits a rock and is thrown off the seat; however Vanessa is trapped in the car that explodes and she survives disfigured and totally burnt. Christy is sent to Pine Bluff Psychiatric Care Center for treatment while her sister is treated by her husband Dr. John Locke (Matthew Settle) at home with the assistance of the nurse Claire Wells (Eliza Norbury). When Vanessa has a heart attack and dies, Christy has a breakdown in the funeral service telling that her sister is alive in the coffin. Then she moves to California for the pre-med, but is haunted by nightmares and weird visions. When the caretaker of the family Joseph (Don S. Davis) dies six years later, Christy returns to Edgemont for the funeral and has a cold reception by John and his mother. However, her niece Amy (Jessica Amlee) that is afraid of "dark things" behind the walls of the house asks her to stay in the town for a couple of days and Christy's friend Debbie (Nicole Anderson) welcomes and lodger her in her house. Christy has mysterious blackouts with strange visions and decides to investigate the death of her sister that she believes had been buried alive, disclosing a dark secret, while the locals believe she has borderline personality disorder."Beneath" is labeled of horror, but it is actually a thriller with some touches of supernatural mysteries. The intriguing story and the characters are well-developed, the acting is above average and in the end "Beneath" is not a masterpiece but a good movie and worthwhile seeing. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Sombra da Morte" ("Shadow of the Death")
A movie that it's better to read...
posted on 26 Jul 2008Well... after reading the last comment in here about saying "the best movie 2007 so far..." i felt disappointed on how the low critic appeal the IMDb reviewers have. This movie is not even far from being better than anything.I will say, the plot was a little weak. The story about this girl searching for a truth about what happened to her sister its the typical story at its most. The plot from the beginning was leading to something good, but later, it started to being a little misplaced. It don't have any form the plot. The thing here is, this story has something, very special, but if you read it like it were on a book, would be a great book. But this kind of weird plot with no sense of direction during and at the most end, does not work right for being a film.First, when you have a good idea, do it. This was a good idea, but this were the thing that do not work for this film. The plot leads the mystery and a not so common way to approach the lead character. That was cool about this movie. Then, they come the "why this person is like this". Very well told that part, but then, the plot starts to spread all over. It was good to keep mystery but they do not lead to a very hard spot. They try it to make you thing some weird things during the mystery that keeps you very near the screen, but then, you start to know what will happened next. And to try to confuse you they use the "black outs" thing. And then, you finally reach to understand all, and then... SURPRISE! the plot leads to a very spread thing with no sense at all for what the movie try the characters to go on. But this, not matter that point, its a good thing about the plot.Then the characters. They were well told and (for my amaze) well acted, but, of course, they look like all of them were a little amateur yet. The lead character does a good act but she, as an actor, does not looked very convinced about her paper. But all the rest of the actors seemed to be with their papers. That was a bad point for her as an actor but she make a good work, because she manage to stand in front of the other actors.Then, the sound, well placed, and gives you some jumps in the seat once in a wile. But what amaze me was the quality of the SOUNDTRACK, the music has some reminiscence from soundtracks from games like SILENT HILL, and could make a very good environment to place you in the movie, but to be honest that was the best part of it. The locations were very good, but the director did not manage to make them look well.The worst was the director, common shots. Camera boring, and did not manage to make a good story a GREAT one. Instead he make it mediocre. He try it to make you being scared for nothing, and could make the lights and filters coordinate to make a very scary place for the locations... and in the way you know the characters its not the way that the plot wants. The director could not connect himself with the story and could not make it in a way this movie could be better.I hope my English is well enough to tell a good critic about this nice movie, and i give it a 5/10, because everyone put a good effort in the making of this but the director couldn't make it work to be a very good movie.
Beneath
posted on 06 Jul 2008Christy watches as her sister is badly burned in a car explosion due to a crash with which she was driving. Told that she was dead, Christy believed that she was still alive. Sent away to a mental hospital, Christy is said to have a Borderline Personality Disorder, and this affects her job later as a 20 year old intern(Nora Zehetner). Finding out that an old friend passed away, Christy returns and decides to pursue whether or not her sister Vanessa(Carly Pope)died from heart failure due to trauma, or by malicious intent. Her sister's husband John(Matthew Settle)wishes her to leave as soon as possible and his daughter Amy(Jessica Amlee)speaks of a thing which comes from the closet to haunt her at night, hoping to catch it on her digital camera. When those close to Vanessa either wind up dead(..like John's mother, portrayed by Gabrielle Rose)or harmed(Amy and John), Christy, against the advice of those around her who resist her notions of a sister who was buried alive, will hopefully shed some light on obvious secrets which have remained hidden just like a crawlspace in the Locke house leading to several areas. An important sub-plot is Christy's uncanny ability to see people's faces and certain acts from the past and future for which she artistically renders to paper. Also important is the location of a mysterious medical assistant to John, Claire(Eliza Norbury)who was with him when Vanessa supposedly died.More or less a mystery with pretty, cat-eyed Zehetner, quite subtle and never really over-dramatic despite the struggles and hurdles she contacts during her search for the truth. If some character, particularly John, is rather aggressive and angry towards her wishing for her to leave, Christy(..through Zehetner) doesn't overreact or throw tantrums about being mistreated. A constant feeling of others wishing for her to just leave the town is ever-present and when she questions anything about Vanessa's death, barriers are thrown up. But, you just know that Christy will forge ahead despite signs of danger, and find the truth. While it's easy to see who the culprit might be regarding the mystery's answer, I found a critical twist regarding Vanessa's true fate rather hard to swallow. The film contains a house with a crawlspace that is very important as a travel source for both escape and directly leading to rooms..it's a plot device used well. You often see Christy attending funerals, too. The twist might work for some..who the monster is that is supposedly terrorizing Amy and behind the attack of John, but I found it a bit hard to take. Beautiful location work, attractive production values, and rather decent acting, but the overall film never really gripped me. And, that ending(..what happens when Christy discovers the real truth about Vanessa)left me cold and indifferent.
Solid B Thriller is best viewed knowing very little about it and with a willingness to accept it for what it is
posted on 26 Jun 2008MTV films makes a really moody horror film. To be certain its the sort of thing thats been done before, but even then this has some genuine shivers and some creepy moments.The basic plot has a young girl returning home when her old caretaker dies. The girl has a tragic past that includes the death of her sister after a fiery car crash. Plagued by visions and a sense that her sister was buried alive she begins to search for clues as to what happened seven years before.This one came out of left field for me. I have vague notions about hearing about the film, but I never really remember seeing or hearing anything about it. I'm pretty sure that helped my enjoyment of the film since I had no preconceived notions for it.Looking like TV movie with interiors that remind one more of a set than of a real place this film over comes its limitations (and occasional WTF moment) to play out almost as if its an extended Tales from the Darkside or other similar horror anthology show. Odd shifts in perspective, some genuine creepy, but not too in your face imagery and willingness to go sans blood and guts except as required make this pretty much a throw back to the old days of horror when less is more. Its not perfect but even with its flaws and the following of a well worn path at times this still manages to be a solid little thriller of the B variety.Worth a rental with a bag of popcorn and a soda.(Though don't buy this just yet -its a bare bones release that they want almost 30 dollars list for- too much for too little)
Great horror movie, a diamond among pearls!
posted on 08 Jan 2008I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. It was very atmospheric, dark and spooky. It lacks pretensions yet delivers exactly what one wants in a good horror/thriller flick, namely good acting, intelligent dialogues and, of course, a creepy subject that slowly unravels.The movie is about Christy, a girl, skillfully played by the charming Nora Zehetner, who can't get over a car accident which occurred years ago and in which her sister was seriously injured and disfigured. Christy returns to her hometown, and some of her most disturbing suspicions slowly start to unveil a hidden truth about her sisters destiny.All in all, a great movie, not a masterpiece, but nonetheless a solid piece of work.
Cheap-looking but okay ghost-film flick.
posted on 29 Dec 2007A 25 year-old woman gives her 12 year-old sister the steering wheel of her car - for a drive on a bumpy, country road - and then acts like a total moron, while her underage sis tries to calm her down. This results in - shock! - an accident!!!! That really came as a super-twist, and so early on in the movie. Amazing how well MTV can entertain us.I've seen so very few horror films, thrillers, and dramas start off with a car accident, so you can imagine how startled I was by this amazing turn of events. How did they come up with that? What kind of inventive minds are hired by MTV's movie department these days? On the other hand, there are several reasonable twists toward the end, although the one with the girl stabbing her deformed mother was a bit too silly.Overall, a forgettable but not awful B-movie, with a rather unappealing, flat-chested female in the role of the surviving sister.Find me a movie that starts with a car-ride which DOESN'T end with a road accident.
Confused direction leads to questionable thriller
posted on 29 Dec 2007Beneath starts with one of those implausible accidents where a car that doesn't seem to be driving too fast hits some boxes of earth that have been left out on the road (as you do) causing them to skid and crash.Kristy (Heroine) is thrown from the car while her sister Vanessa (on the non-impacted side) appears to be trapped and then the fuel tank explodes.One could say that Vanessa should never have let Kristy drive, as she was under age, and if she was going to let her then possibly not standing in the passenger seat whooping may have helped. Possibly not.Kristy is heading to the funeral of the caretaker, Joseph, who seemed to have cared for her after her sisters death (except we know she isn't really because we see many shots of her burned skin - and alive). In fact Kristy thinks she was buried alive - there can't be far fewer hints that she is alive can there? At times the script seems to have little idea where it is going. Lines which may have once meant to establish something, the doctors family with the mine they had trouble closing and John Locke's mother who speaks the "ancient tongue" - a mix between a number of European languages - all seem to be badly devised red herrings or more likely writers ideas that were never edited out.Kristy however wants to find out the truth and Nora Zehetner (Kristy) really tries to get something out of a stodgy script. However with John acting all evil you feel the actor has read to the end of the script and found out that he is... well evil, or mad, or just badly written as he is acted.Kristy also suffers from hallucinations and this for me is one of the main points that lets the film down. If her hallucinations were really this bad would she have been let out of the mental hospital, especially when some of her visions see her causing people harm or blacking out for 2 hour periods only to be found fitting in your friends back garden (a friend you are staying with because you forgot to ask beforehand if you could stay at your brother-in-laws place).Other questions arise as to whether school websites really do carry peoples personal details (I'll have to check my own for phone numbers), how much light can a mobile phone really produce and why Mr Wells uses a shotgun to shoot at birds. My favorite is the fact that the police take Kristy at night and the next shot she is in the back seat in full daylight. Were they taking her for a cruise round town? Finally when Vanessa is found to be alive (gasp, shock) she has one of those pro-active kill spree agendas which is never truly explained by the plot.There are positives to be taken here and it does not outstay its welcome however Beneath really does little to complement itself either, bar Nora Zehetner and a reasonable music score.
Not bad, but not good either. Certainly not scary...
posted on 02 Oct 2007I expected a bit much, since I made the mistake to read the "Diamond among pearls" comment. Back to reality: the acting is mediocre towards bad, the story is boring and the scary stuff is just a girl having weird visions. The fact that overall it makes sense is a plus, especially for the "psychically sensitive girl that no one believes" subtype of the horror genre.Bottom line: this is more of a psychic thriller and not a horror movie. The last part, while it conveniently ties all the loose ends, is way too convenient, more of a moral compromise that breaks the slightly better feel of the story coming to a quasi-logical finale. I can easily imagine all the actors playing in a third rate soap opera, so don't expect a lot better acting that that.
My review of "Beneath"
posted on 30 Sep 2007***WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ***"An honest life ends in a peaceful death" —Proverb."Beneath" is a horror flick released straight to video and marks the directorial debut of Dagen Merrill, co-written with Kevin Burke (who also wrote 2003's "Tahiti", an indie drama that earned some critical praise).Christy Wescot (Nora Zehetner, "Brick") is a 20-year-old pre-med student who cannot fully live her own life since her older sister Vanessa (Carly Pope, "Sandra Goes to Whistler") was killed in a car accident six years earlier, in which Christy was driving. "Give me the wheel! Christy!" could have been the last words she remembers from her sister, who was also a young mother and the wife of John Locke (Matthew Settle), a local doctor in the town of Edgemont.The sudden death of family caretaker Joseph (Don S. Davis) prompts a phone call from John to Christy informing her that the funeral services will be held next Saturday. This phone call releases the latent anxiety Christy has been suppressing for the past six years. So when Christy jumps aboard a bus, she's already been fired from her job and is in need of antidepressants for a diagnosed borderline personality disorder spurred by her guilt over her sister's injuries. "Why did you go away?" her niece Amy (Jessica Amlee) asks her. Christy sardonically replies, "I went to prep school" (University of South California). Now Christy's niece lives in the Locke family home with dad and her grandma, the ominous Mrs. Locke (Gabrielle Rose), whom her cute red-haired granddaughter calls a "weirdo", and she is indeed, since she disappears from the dinner table and prefers to eat alone in her place. Amy is convinced a dark, mysterious thing killed good ol' Joseph and that Grandma is mean and secretive. Nora Zehetner maintains a mesmerizing tension from the very beginning. When she contemplates her arrival home to the small town from which she's been disconnected for a long time but has never severed her ties to, she does an awe-inspiring job of conveying Christy's conflicting emotions. And this is one of the main reasons the film succeeds, because its plot devices rely basically on our empathy for the lead character. There are moments that as a viewer we can notice the story would dry up if Christy couldn't find a new clue, a new clear thought, an accusatory gaze from some of the townspeople who have become strangers to her. She finds it difficult to reconnect with a junior high school friend, Debbie Houston (Nicola Anderson) and the townsfolk try to make her move on. Christy must not only hide the pain of her lonely existence and the hallucinations that plague her, she also has to face the humiliation of condescending treatment from the neighbours, nurses, and cops around her; though one of them, Jeff Burdan (Warren Christie), is pretty kind to her, his cop pal Randy (Patrick Gilmore) makes a cruel remark before being introduced to Christy.Christy investigates some circumstances that occurred during the six months of rehabilitation that Vanessa received in Locke's home immediately after the accident, a losing battle against a certain death. Christy finds out this rehabilitation took place in a room beneath Locke's house where Vanessa was attended by a nurse named Claire Wells (Eliza Norbury) whom supposedly left town and moved to Portland, Maine. Christy also investigates the details about Vanessa's burial, as well as her medical files (which are now in private access for John Locke), all the while succumbing to near psychotic states when she suffers random seizures that lead her to draw darkly artistic portraits of people and threatening symbols. The laid-back manner of the townspeople grate on Christy's nerves as they stubbornly deny her suspicions regarding her sister's death. Christy is constantly perceived as an unstable, meddling girl, which fits these simple-minded locals struggling in a post-mining economy ruled by Locke's dynasty.But as another character says to Christy at the beginning of the story, "Death is always hardest on the living." And this obsession with her sister's death makes the heroine's lunatic mind spin frantically like a profaned coffin. "It lives in my walls. I hear it crying". "I take pictures 'cause I can't draw", Amy says.Passageways designed for escaping the mines, locked entrances, insects-plagued basements will confuse us as much as they confuse Christy in her confused mental state; the film is soaked with the romantic, timeless beauty of Nora Zehetner, whose performance as an isolated young woman with a precipitous imagination elicits our innate sympathy and conquers our hearts in the end. Zehetner's Poe-like heroine maybe is a paraphrenic without love life but she's the last voice standing against the apathy and lack of conscience that the town represents. Christy awakens our sedated morals, defending her right to unmask her tortured soul, a beautiful, vulnerable but never weak, Miss Lonely in the land of guilt". http://jake-weird.blogspot.com/2007/08/beneath.html
Promising debacle
posted on 16 Sep 2007Christy Wescott (Nora Zehetner) has spent most of the past six years of her life in under medication. On her 14th Birthday she goes on a joyride with her older sister Vanessa (Carly Pope), which goes awry. Christy survives the crash unharmed, but Vanessa breaks her legs only to be engulfed by flames. Miracously she survives and falls into the loving arms of her husband Dr. John Locke. For six months Vanessa fights for her life, amongst others for her daughter, Amy, but ultimately dies of a heart attack. At the funeral Christy has visions of Vanessa being buried alive and is quickly diagnosed as demented. Years have passed, Christy has tried to move on but visions still occur. A funeral in her home town forces her to revisit her past... All in all not a bad watch. Sometimes it even goes outside the box and even though you know the mystery miles before it is officially resolved it does keep you enticed. The movie does however have its significant flaws, including illogical motives and behaviours of movie characters. The ending is especially unsatisfying with some serious inconsistencies.It does however end on a high note, even if it had to make some blunders to get there. Nonetheless a decent horror flick with little to none gore and a couple of scares. Superficial, but doesn't fully deliver its promises.
Likable mystery thriller
posted on 05 Jul 2009I have to say that I didn't expect much from this film when I rented it today, but I was really surprised by it.Although the film's story is quite a cliché as is suggested by the back of the DVD case, in my opinion it's done surprisingly good. A pretty conclusive story, except perhaps for the start of it all, not too bad acting and a nice music score form into a decent mystery thriller. I liked how the heroine actually investigates quite a bit throughout the movie instead of just getting the conclusions laid out for her in front of her eyes. Additionally the film doesn't use too many flashy, cheap shock moments and successfully tries to depend more on the mystery itself. And, contrary to the cliché, the heroine doesn't behave exceptionally stupid all the time.On the downside you won't have many surprises coming in the story if you've seen at least a few mystery thrillers. The ending actually managed to satisfy me, a feat rarely achieved by that genre of movies.If you like mystery thrillers and always thought that those loud, noisy "in your face" shock moments are overused you should try this movie.