Beneath (2013)

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!

So these other reviewers obviously don't know a well made character driven horror movie when they see one. As an up an coming writer director I have a ton of respect for Larry Fessenden and what he did for indie horror. He is the godfather of indie horror. One of horrors most important voices. Beneath is an excellent film overall. Fessenden clearly went into it with the idea that the true monster here is man. It is a film about emotions and how friends can easily turn on each other when faced with such situations. It scared the hell out of me and with a collection of over 2000 horror films, this movie stands high on the list.

Just watched it and I thoroughly enjoyed this B rate horror film. Surprisingly the actors were very good, no bad actors in here. The only fault is the fish which is like rubber floating. Other than that the atmosphere, the story, the acting were all surprisingly fantastic. The story is pretty horrible and intense. Some actions may be nonsensical, but I like the ending. No one is truly good, the only one who was good also ended up with a bad ending. The worst of the lot deserved his comeuppance. I am satisfied with the ending.Overall, this is an A effort for a B movie. Better budget, more famous actors with better CGI and this movie may actually be box office material.

There is so much to love in this film, from its clichéd premise to it's tongue, in cheek campiness, and Fassenden's excellent shots. The 'well, you just didn't get it' argument is one of the weakest arguments out there but the overwhelming negativity towards this movie makes me think it truly went over a lot of heads. There is so much to this movie but much like the title it's all beneath the surface. This movie isn't about a giant catfish, it's about the superficiality of friendships, about the protective, conformity nature of childhood friendships and how the characters only seem like friends when deep down they all despise each other and with high school ending, the necessity for those friends disappeared. The catfish represents the movie viewer and if you watch closely at what the catfish actually does, you'll might see it, but I don't want to spoil it.The characterisation in this film is very solid. We see the teenagers in their friendship roles and as the movie progresses we see beneath the facades all of them wear.The catfish effects are awesome. Every monster movie needs a good monster and this one is both humorous and threatening at once which isn't always easy to pull off. I love the mind games it plays with the kids.If you have a good eye for excellent filmmaking you will see the bounty this hidden gem has to offer. If you don't...well, chances are that is probably why this film has a 3.8 rating (which is preposterous).Beneath is a skillfully made, intelligent, witty, beautifully photographed horror film that should not be passed up because a bunch of idiots just simply didn't get it; a movie called Beneath went over so many heads is beyond me.