Something Beneath (2007)

Arriving at a new hotel, a group working to prepare for an upcoming seminar find a strange black goo popping up around the hotel and when it's revealed that the goo can turn victim's fears against them, they all try to get the remaining guests out before it gets them all.This one here is a really decent film overall. One of the better elements featured here is the fact that this here has a unique creature which is a rather strong plus. This is an amorphous blob that travels along sewer paths that will kill others based on hallucinations derived from their darkest fears is really nice and displays an interesting gimmick that allows for some great fun. There are some rather nice ones, including the completely unnerving and really creepy bathroom hallucinations of the old woman attacking her in the mirrors, the assault in the basement becomes ultra-creepy once the dog becomes involved chasing her around the facility and the highlight is the series of encounters down in the sewers where all sorts of fears are brought out as this one ups the action as well as being completely suspenseful. The evacuation of the hotel and everything that results from it are really fun, where there's everything from the lengthy suspenseful stalking scene in the sewer systems to a major action scene inside the compound where they get to confront the creature inside the middle of the facility to the race to get out, this is full of fantastic moments that really work, giving this one a stellar pace which is quite impressive overall. These here are the film's good points as this one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws. Those are all based around the film's titular creature as this is one of the most non-threatening creatures around in no way should inspire fear. Barely touching it starts a hallucination that will kill a person by their greatest fear, but that isn't done by having the creature lay a physical hand on the victim, and they still can be saved even after touching the creature physically. That the creature has to lure victims down into the basement, despite a size given in the film to be of considerable mass, since it can't really move but expand outward as it's rooted in a particular spot, makes this yet another strike against the creature. That is it's biggest strike, and with all these here against the creature in it the film would've been a whole lot better had this been fixed into a more threatening creature. The film's other minor issue is the heavy-handed environmental message that gets hammered home here, tending to be forced into the proceedings with the subtlety of a sledgehammer which doesn't make for an enjoyable time here. These are what hold this one back.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Something Beneath is set at ecological conference at a newly built out of the way resort, ecological crusader Father Douglas Middleton (Kevin Sorbo) is organising the event & has some guy named Eugene (Rob McLaughlin) as his keynote speaker. Unfortunately Eugene turns up dead before he gets to make his speech, the death is put down to an asthma attack by a worried resort manager who wants to keep any bad publicity to a minimum. Then soon after 'it' girl Mikaela Strovsky (Brittany Scoobie) turns up with her wrist's slashed, coincidence or are the two seemingly unrelated death's connected & just what is that black slime that seems to be oozing from everywhere? Father Middleton & resort events organiser Khali Spence (Natalie Brown) try to get to the bottom of the mystery...This Canadian production is yet another Sci-Fi Channel original but this time instead of killer mutant snakes or ants or fish or dinosaurs or aliens we get some black slime monster, directed by David Winning I thought Something Beneath tried to do something a bit different with the 'Creature Feature' blueprint but comes off just as bad as any giant animal/insect/monster/alien/resurrected dinosaur film made by the Sci-Fi Channel you care to mention. Along with the standard clichéd 'Creature Feature' angle the script has an annoyingly simplistic pro-environmental message to it that has all the subtlety of a sledge hammer, we are told in no uncertain terms that the environment must be protected & big business is the real evil monster. Yeah, yeah, seen it & heard it all before in dozens of other much better films. Something Beneath also has one of the worst endings I have ever seen, our hero Father Middleton & the token female love interest Khali (I told you it was clichéd) are stuck in an abandoned silo with the huge slime monster at the bottom & Khali hanging off a broken bridge in mortal danger. So what happens, so what do the makers decide to do to round the film off from this point? That's right they have Khali hold her homemade necklace thing, say a few words in her native language as a prayer & the slime monster then just leaves her alone & goes away. The makers of Something Beneath have the huge slime monster defeated by a woman's faith & a few words. Lame. In fact it's one of the laziest, most random & moronic endings I've ever seen in a film & doesn't stay in keeping with the rest of the film anyway since there's not been any supernatural elements to that point. The pace is poor, there are a few plot-holes like why does it take hours for Deadmarsh to be affected by the hallucinations when earlier both Eugene & Mikaela had hallucinations almost immediately?When you get this slime on you it gets into your bloodstream & produces hallucinations revolving around your worst fears that result in your death, the idea is quite good but nothing is done with it & people have very cheap looking hallucinations like seeing things in mirrors or being chased by a dog. Dull & lacking in imagination considering the possibilities were endless. There's a really bad moment at the start when a construction worker has a bulldozer heading towards him & instead of running or simply moving to the left or right he starts to stumble backwards to try & make the scene look more menacing & to try & make it look as if he is in danger but it ends up just looking ridiculous. I am not sure if the version I saw on telly was cut or not but there's no gore & there did seem to be various awkward edits & jumpy looking scenes. The CGI slime monster at the end doesn't look too bad but it isn't great or anything, just maybe slightly better than I expected.Shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada this has the usual average production values most of these Sci-Fi Channel monster films do, to be honest you will have totally forgotten about it within five minutes of it finishing. Kevin Sorbo is as big a name actor as the makers could afford which says everything.Something Beneath could have been something a little bit different with it's unusual monster but in the end it still feels exactly the same as dozens of other 'Creature Features' & doesn't try to distinguish itself that much. More generic, lazy, by-the-numbers 'Creature Feature' rubbish that is instantly forgettable.

Wow. So bad, that my heart hurts for Canadian cinema... Honestly, I've not seen worse acting/directing in a VERY long time. Why would such a complete piece of garbage ever get made? Who would ever care for it to fill even the least watched time slot on TV???? The writing was completely 2D, the concept beyond a watered down rip off of every thriller that has come before this bomb, such as Tremors, Poltergeist, "It"and so on. The last scene - did they really think that awful kiss was a good take??? For god's sake, all you have to say is "let's try it one more time". Was the director blind? I think this may be the worst movie I have ever seen... The ONLY reason I saw it is because I'm sick with a terrible case of strep and couldn't even reach the converter. Plus, it was so horrible, that it was almost compelling.

Completely absurd. Acting is terrible. The black goo wasn't very menacing. No explanation of where it came from. If it was intelligent, how come it couldn't sense that no one was intentionally trying to harm it? Hallucinations? Terrible concept! Completely lacking in tension, and interest. One of the worst I've ever seen. Thank goodness I caught it on TV and didn't pay to see this garbage. Kevin Sorbo should be ashamed of himself. I know a person needs to work to live, but he should have passed on this turkey and gotten a part time job pumping gas instead. It is a testament to today's state of film making, that proves that anyone anywhere can make a movie and have it released. Shame!