LeonLouisRicci Lifeless Thriller that although Marketed as a Horror Movie it falls way short because aside from some Graveyard Stuff about Premature Burials, Paranormal Ghost Happenings, and wait a minute this is trying to be a Horror Movie, so why is it so Not-Horrible?Because everything is pulled back quite a bit here to almost PG-Land with most of the Elements lacking any real Deliverance. There are No Shocks to speak of and it is hardly Violent and its Creep Factor is Mysteriously Low.Dennis Quaid does give it the Old School Try Vacillating from Hard Stares to Threatening Dialog. But what's Missing here is a Consistency of Competence. It comes across as Pedestrian and almost Amateur Hour most of the Time. The Side-Stories are Never Remotely Entered into the Shallow Plot and this Thing ends up as not Awful but Scattered and not Engaging in any way.

oversized02 The movie tells the story of an undertaker who works too much, almost in the evenings. Some young grown ups wonder why this is so and step into great trouble, take a look what he is doing there, but... all Adults in the movie are stupid, except Dennis Quaid he is mad, especially doing this movie. And it's "Kind of Wonder" running like an athlete with a gunshot in the leg. I think i don't have to write more than this 10 sentences;-)Movie is complete waste of time.Ciao Wolfi

Coventry I was hugely looking forward to "Beneath the Darkness" when it played at the annual Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films during a midnight screening, because I was told – and I eagerly believed – that it was an uncompromising and outrageous horror/thriller that granted Dennis Quaid the opportunity to depict a psychotic and derailed small Texas-town serial killer. Dennis Quaid as a crazed mortician! What avid genre fanatic wouldn't look forward to this? Together with a theater full of enthusiast people, I expected a tremendously high body count, lots of pitch-black humor, perverted undertones and a totally whack Dennis Quaid one-man-show. Things didn't exactly turn out as favorable … I wouldn't go as far to call "Beneath the Darkness" a disastrous film, but it's definitely a bit too ambitious and wannabe intelligent for its own good. Quaid's character Ely Vaughn, the local undertaker who's still highly admired within the community because he used to be a star quarterback in high school, is indeed an utterly disturbed individual but he's not a maniac on a rampage. Quite the contrary, in fact, Ely is a very distinguished person and his dark side only comes to the surface when a couple of school kids decide to sniffle around in his private business. The first five minutes of the film, as well as the final fifteen, are very entertaining and exciting, not coincidentally because these are the only times that Quaid gets to showcase his evil grimaces and madman capacities. Everything in between is just an overlong series of clichéd and derivative situations. Of course nobody believes the teenagers when they're accusing one of the most prominent town members of being a psychopath and obviously the cheerleader beauty will gradually fall for the outsider nerd instead of her cowardly jock boyfriend. And then I'm not even talking about the pointless sub plot of the nerdy kid who still feels responsible for his little sister's death ten years ago and the difficult relationship with his mother. That was completely irrelevant and downright redundant. In spite of being the big star of the picture, Dennis Quaid actually has surprisingly little screen time and – frankly – nearly not enough chances to illustrate the craziness of his character's persona. This is one giant missed opportunity, to say the least.

gavin6942 After watching their best friend get murdered, a group of teens struggle to expose a local mortician (Dennis Quaid) as the vicious killer and keep from becoming his next victims.I see this film has a pretty low rating and has some rather scathing reviews. Frankly, I thought it was alright -- much better than a lot of the films I see. Dennis Quaid is always a joy, and the overall concept was entertaining.If I had to make any complaint, it is that the mother character is just really, really poorly acted. I do not know her character's name, or I would specifically call out that actress. She is outdone by kids half her age, and that is just insulting.Is this the overlooked horror film of 2011? Heck no. Is it comparable to "The Shining"? Not even in the same league. But I also do not think it is as bad as made out to be by some of those who have said it is like watching paint dry.