Something Beneath (2007)

Directed by David Winning [Other horror films: Storm (1987), Black Swarm (2007), Swamp Devil (2008)]

For some reason, I’ve seen this television flick at least twice before I sat down and watched it this time around. I’m not sure why I’d have watched this again, but having seen it now at least three times, I will admit there’s a little charm to it.

Something Beneath doesn’t really have that interesting a story, and for the most part, the deaths and special effects aren’t all that impressive. One of the sequences in particular reminded me of a scene from the 2003 Fear of the Dark (a personal favorite of mine), which was sort of amusing. Overall, you can certainly tell this film has an amateurish quality to it.

So where’s the charm come from, you might ask?

Luckily, enough of the important actors were decent enough to bring some positives to this film. No doubt Brittany Scobie and Brendan Beiser were over-the-top, but Kevin Sorbo and Natalie Brown complimented each other decently well. Sorbo, playing an Episcopalian priest (a joke about it halfway through the movie always sort of made me smile) does a good job, and though he has some foolish things to say about faith now and again, Sorbo was certainly a highlight. Brown isn’t a name I’m well-acquainted with, but she was pretty attractive in this role, and more importantly, worked well with Sorbo (though the cheesy ending was a bit much).

Some of the actors weren’t great, but didn’t do too shabby either, including Peter MacNeill, Gordan Tanner, and Brett Donahue. While none of these three really stood out that well, at the very least they were competent in their roles, which, for a movie of this quality, is commendable.

The ending was pretty blah, but again, that’s sort of to be expected. Really, the movie is pretty generic throughout, and some of the characters are just, as I said, over-the-top. It doesn’t help that occasionally the film has a whimsical tone to it. All of this said, Something Beneath isn’t god-awful, and might be worth a look. Having seen it as many times as I’ve had, I find it below average, but it’s not really all that atrocious. Like I said, there is some charm to be found here.

6/10