Beneath - Abstieg in die Finsternis

Nach längerer Zeit mal wieder ein qualitativ hochwertiger Film mit klaustrophobischer Atmosphäre. Eine Gruppe von Bergleuten wird zusammen mit der Heldin in einem Kohlenbergwerk verschüttet. Diejenigen, die überleben, kämpfen nicht nur gegen den schwindenden Sauerstoff, sondern auch gegen etwas/jemand anderen... Es ist zu erkennen, dass Ketai, wenn er sich nicht dem Vergewaltigen fantastischer Vampire widmet, Stoff findet, der ihm liegt. Und obwohl seine Neuheit keinen besonders originellen Handlungsstrang hat, kann er sie in anderer Hinsicht verkaufen. Zum Beispiel in der Aufrechterhaltung von Spannung und beklemmender Atmosphäre. Gore ist auch hervorragend umgesetzt. Und schließlich ist auch die Besetzung gut, denn abgesehen von der sympathischen Heldin und ihrem Vater, gespielt von Fahey, beleidigt auch der junge "Weißt du, was ich meine?" aus Millers Trip nicht. Neben beiden Teilen von The Descent gibt es nicht viele bessere Untergrund-Horrorfilme, daher ist das schon ein ausreichender Grund, Beneath nicht zu verpassen. Wir werden sehen, womit As Above, So Below noch aufwartet. (02.07.2014)

The director of the awful sequel to 30 Days of Night has done a pretty good job, something I wasn’t expecting from him. Excellent proof that you shouldn’t immediately dismiss anyone. Beneath is a text-book example of survival horror, i.e. a film where a group of characters (as it’s typical, in an attractive natural setting like mountains or caves) fight for their lives, both against the external circumnstances or various villains, and against each other. Survival is a pretty gratifying sub-genre, when it’s well made it can deliver tension basically from beginning to end, and Beneath is well made. The setting of a caved-in coal mine feels dirty and claustrophobic, and when you remember news from different parts of the world about similar accidents, the plot feels quite credible. The execution is almost perfect and the actors are decent, but the script could have got a bit more attention: when the characters begin to hallucinate, the situation becomes quite unclear and now I can’t remember exactly what was the fate of each of the miners. It could also have gone a little deeper psychologically, there was potential for that. It would also have helped if the film was a purely masculine affair, like Carpenter’s The Thing, because focusing on the one female protagonist that by a screenwriting accident finds herself in the mine makes things a little predictable. And even though the story takes place in a spooky underground and the characters suffer from spooky images, rather than only scaring, the film holds the tension… which is somehow part of survival stories. But in spite of these quibbles, Beneath turned out to be an unexpectedly excellent survival movie, perhaps the best of its kind since The Decent. 8/10 (02.07.2014)

The strong point of the movie "Beneath" is the fact that it doesn't unnecessarily use handheld camera, which is a good thing because there has been too much of it lately. Additionally, the dark environment is appropriately utilized. Only the jump scares are sometimes just too predictable, but it is true that handling the unexpected is something that almost nobody can do anymore, and there are very few of them. "Beneath" probably won't blow your mind, but among similarly themed movies, it is a fairly well-executed work. (16.09.2014)