Call me cynical, but from my experience, it’s reasonable to be skeptical of the quality of any motion picture which features the words “MTV Presents” above the title. It’s all fine and well that MTV Films has brought us quality comedies like “Election,” “Orange County,” and “Napoleon Dynamite” over the years, but they’re still responsible for the bad movie trifecta of “Joe’s Apartment,” “Pootie Tang,” and the Britney Spears vehicle, “Crossroads,” and even releasing “Hustle and Flow” ain’t gonna wipe away sins like those.
In the case of “Beneath,” though, I have to admit that the imprint’s first-ever horror flick is more successful than I ever would’ve expected. Now, normally, I’d just chalk it up to the fact that I went into the film with really low expectations…but, no, I was legitimately sucked into the proceedings.
Nora Zehetner, who played the highly persuasive Eden McCain on “Heroes,” is Christy, a girl who lost her sister, Vanessa (Carly Pope), in a car accident when she was a teenager. Well, actually, Christy didn’t lose her in the accident; Vanessa suffered 3rd degree burns all over her body as a result of being trapped in the flaming wreckage, eventually succumbing to them…or did she?!? Given that Christy had a nervous breakdown at Vanessa’s funeral when she became convinced that her sister was still alive within the coffin, we’re left to suspect that perhaps she didn’t. Now, Christy is 20, and although she’s taking prescriptions to combat the psychological scars that remain from her sister’s death, she’s having strange visions which make her more certain that Vanessa’s demise was hastened by someone else.
Since we’re dealing with a 2007 release, I’m not going to dive quite so deep into the plot of “Beneath” as I have with some of the other flicks I’ve been discussing. I will, however, say that Zehetner is the perfect lead for this flick, looking just doe-eyed and innocent enough for you to feel for her while still coming off crazy enough for you to be uncertain as to whether her visions are real or not. The film does drag a little in its middle third, but it starts intriguingly and has a power-packed finish with a shocking moment in the last few minutes that actually succeeded in catching me by surprise. In short, if you can hang on through the slow bits, you’ll get your pay-off.
I don’t want to play “Beneath” up as the best horror film of the year or anything (though by clocking it at a mere 81 minutes, it may yet prove to be the shortest), but it’s another entry into the field of films that try to be scary without being gory, and given that we’re mere days away from being hit with “Saw IV,” surely that alone is worthy of a certain amount of applause.
