‘Beneath the Darkness’ is a chilling movie driven by its characters to put a scare on the audience instead of utilizing the usual horror elements of blood and a lot of gore. It starts off with following four friends in high school led by Tony Oller and their journey towards discovering their curiosity about the neighborhood mortician played out by Dennis Quaid. When they once had the chance to get inside his house, they discovered a secret that the mortician would not want everyone to know that he is ready to even reach the point of hurting them.
Director Guigui focused on the element of psychological terror to scare the audience plus all the suspense and tension that the character of the mortician puts on the teens. It was interesting to find Quaid playing the role of a bad guy making the audience interested on how he would be able to carry out such a character when he has been used to playing the good guy roles for a long time already. Teegarden was also perfect to play the role of Abby who is the one ever striving to reveal the true person inside the mortician.
The young actress was able to portray the role in a very genuine approach that her entire acting all throughout the film was believable. The film may not be able to portray such great effects for a thriller themed film but it is successful in capturing the essence of the creepiness and oddity of any typical small American neighborhoods.
The more that the audience gets involved deeper into the film, the more that you would experience the psychological terror and emotion that Guigui as the director wants everyone to feel. It is something to look forward to this start of 2012 for a good sensible scare.