Beneath

Never was a big fan of the underground/descent style movies. This one was pretty good. I think the creepiest movies are the ones that draw upon natural fears. Claustrophobia is one of mine and the thought of being underground when freaky stuff happens, and the possibility of running out of light and/or oxygen makes for a tense movie. To the people that poo-poo on the "inspired by actual events": That is way different than "Based on a true story". There have been plenty of cave-ins and plenty of miners dead and some where miners survive. So who knows which one "inspired" the writers of this film. Chill out and enjoy a good movie.

The scariest aspect of "The Descent" (2005) wasn't the monsters (or even the backstabbing female-empowerment politics) but the narrow cave crevices the characters managed to squeeze through, the endless maze of tunnels they could so easily get lost in, the darkness that hid unseen dangers. "Beneath" has a lot of the same feel--the claustrophobia of the mine itself is as bad as whatever else is down there. And no, the crew isn't simply trapped underground, running out of oxygen and waiting to die. Worse yet, there's something else in there. What was in the unmapped cavern the miners accidentally breached, causing the cave-in in the first place? Many of the miners were buried by the cave-in--or were they? The survivors can wait for rescue, right? Or can they? It's not clear what the miners should be scared of, but it's clear they should be scared, and the audience along with them. As a haunted house movie, this mine is one hell of a haunted house. And whatever's going on in that house, it's not good!

This movie only got those three stars because of the supporting actors who were actually pretty good. The director went with shaky camera, flashing lights that last too long, in the darkness that lasts too long, and way too long of a build before anything happens.

I mean seriously, you put 6 full minutes of flashing lights and darkness into 80 minutes of movie? The main character sucks at acting. And there is nothing scary in this movie. Nothing. Note even a cheap thrill scare.

The other reviewers talked about the claustrophobia of the cave....... But that doesn't do anything for those of us who aren't claustrophobic.

I love when I skeptically click on these 5.4 rated movies on imdb (what it's at now), but what I get is a 6.3 calibre movie. There wasn't any point in this one where I was like "nah, that wouldn't happen" or "nah, I'm bored." This was just solid all the way through, with no boredom, no cringe moments, no scenes that drag out, just pure claustrophobic terror. I will say most of the jump scares were predictable horror tropes (girl turns around quickly and there's a face behind her, etc.), but they were still high quality for what they are. It's interesting, the fact that something this good only got a 5.4 has me wondering about other horror movies around that score. Maybe there's a lot more good ones then I thought.

Good scares, good atmosphere, good acting, good gore, basically good everything. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is that it's a very simple premise. It accomplishes what it set out to do, but what it set out to do is not very ambitious. This isn't high art, like Event Horizon or Annihilation. It reminded me of The Descent, although not quite as good due to less character development. In The Descent, I really cared for the characters. In this one, not so much.

If you want simple and effective claustrophobic horror, this is it.

The movie start with a scene in a bar where the female lead says she is going to go down in the coal mine to show the guys that she can totally do what they can do. She does indeed go down into the mine because she wouldn't be part of the movie otherwise. A couple of guys working a digger break into some sort of tunnel. Almost immediately afterwards, there is a collapse and they are all trapped. It's unclear whether this is just a coincidence or whether the two events are related. Trapped and with the air going bad, they go to a rescue shelter to wait it until until help arrives. Of course, that's not how it plays out because that would make for a really boring movie. The two men who were working the digger are missing. Spooky stuff starts happening. Et cetera.

This movie does have some thing going for it. The female lead is not the best but the supporting cast is good. The underground environment is believable and suitably claustrophobic. The make-up effects are pretty good. What lets this movie down is the script. I get keeping the audience in the dark at first to build suspense but this movie keeps the audience in the dark for the whole movie. The female lead starts seeing things almost right away but doesn't bother to mention this tidbit to anyone. We never really find out why either. We never really find out why anything is happening or how much of this even is happening. There's a lame stinger ending that just made me roll my eyes. There are some good elements but they don't even come together in to anything.