BENEATH

BENEATH

"The following is inspired by true events. In 2013, a collapse at the Brackett Coal Mine left a group of workers trapped nearly six hundred feet underground. This is what happened ... beneath the surface".

So begins BENEATH, Ben Ketai's entirely fictional film.

It starts with a rescue team penetrating through the collapsed rubble and shining their torches on what appears to be a bloodbath of mangled corpses. Then they stumble across a survivor, and the story begins proper as we're propelled back in time by 4 days.

We learn here that George (Jeff Fahey) had decided to retire as a miner after 35 years in the business. His mining pals, led by Mundy (Brent Briscoe) are holding a party for him at a local bar on the eve of his last ever journey below ground level with them.

George's daughter Sam (Kelly Noonan) is home for the event, taking a break from her career in New York where she works in environmental law. She busies herself necking beers and filming last-minutes to her dad on her mobile phone. When she comes to record a message from George's young colleague Randy (Joey Kern), it's clear that she and him have a history together.

As the party winds down at the evening's end, Sam reveals she wants to join the all-male crew in the mine on the following morning. George agrees, so long as Randy looks after her. "It's my last chance to see you in action", she tells her dad.

The group reconvenes at the mine the morning after, where Sam fights off last-minute nerves and boldly makes her descent into the mine with Randy close by her side. Their romantic past becomes more apparent during these moments.

Once down below, Mundy takes charge and asks his male crew to be on their best behaviour in front of their female guest. And then they make their way deep into the heart of the mine.

George's last ever shift ... Sam's first time going under ... a group of friends with simmering tensions within their group just itching to burst out ... and a setting based 600 feet beneath the Earth's surface. What could possibly go wrong?

Ketai sets up the exposition quite well, with some good chemistry being achieved between his actors during the lighter early scenes. Fahey and Briscoe add undeniable class to the mix, though it's worth pointing out that younger players such as Noonan and Kern can more than hold their own against the old hands. We're given a warmer bunch of protagonists than is usual for a contemporary horror film, which is a plus.

That is, to begin with. Once the inevitable collapse occurs and this team of experienced diggers find themselves trapped underground, a sense of claustrophobia soon turns to near-madness as people begin to turn on one another. This is mostly conveyed in a restrained, realistic manner; although there are over-boiled moments of confrontation which do threaten to completely undermine the unfurling drama.

A suggestion of the supernatural keeps the action occasionally ambitious (are they alone down there? Or are they just going insane?), while the opening reveal serves as a constant reminder that things are going to turn ugly at some point.

Proficiently put together, ably edited and briskly paced, BENEATH certainly boasts strong technical attributes. But it never feels terribly original or unpredictable, and there's a muted impact to the more lively scenes: considering the build-up, the horror -if you can even call it that - never truly hits home.

By the time it finishes, Ketai's film feels like an enjoyable, above-par TV film - entertaining enough while it lasted, but pretty forgettable all the same.

BENEATH hits UK DVD courtesy of Arrow Films.

It's presented in 16x9 widescreen and looks good. Strong blacks, accurate colours and sharp images contribute towards a highly satisfactory presentation.

Likewise, the English 2.0 audio does its job efficiently.

The disc is defaulted to open with trailers for HONEYMOON and MY AMITYVILLE HORROR.

From there, we're led into a discreetly animated main menu page. A static scene selection menu splits the usual 12-chapter access to the main feature across two pages.

Bonus features commence with a behind-the-scenes featurette which offers a few cast and crew EPK-style soundbites along with on-location footage. This runs for just over 3 minutes so, really, proffers very little insight. A miner spent a day on the shoot offering advice to the cast, which they all felt was beneficial - that's the extent of the information on offer here.

Considering the length (or lack of) of the above extra, you do have to worry when the next one is listed as simply being a "short featurette". Yup, it's more soundbites telling us a little more character background over the course of 106 seconds.

Finally we get a "bonus clip". This is a 65-second montage of sepia photographs while onscreen text describes a disaster that killed many in a mine back in 1927. Set to vintage warbling, I'm not sure what this clip's purpose was; was it shot for inclusion in the film but deleted during post-production? Who knows.

BENEATH is never going to be remembered as an essential addition to the 21st century horror film cycle. It's unlikely to even make it into people's end-of-year lists. But it's not bad. With good feature presentation but insubstantial extras, the same can be said of Arrow's DVD.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Arrow Films
Region 2
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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