BENEATH

Fresh out of high school, six school friends decide to celebrate the end of their school courses with a trip to the lake. Despite the warnings of a local fisherman, the six take a small rowboat and venture into the water. But the lake is infested with a large carnivorous fish that quickly damages the boat and mortally wounds one of them. For the boys, it will be time to decide who among them must sacrifice themselves and serve as bait to the monster so that the others can reach the shore. To many, the name Larry Fessenden won't mean much, but to those who follow horror cinema, their eyes will probably light up, as since the '90s the New York director has practiced the genre with auteur visions in the more underground landscape ("No Telling – La sindrome di Frankenstein" and "Habit") and more recently with the interesting "Wendigo" and the definitely unsuccessful "The Last Winter", up to being consecrated a master of horror with one of the best episodes of the TV series "Fear Itself". Now Fessenden returns with a strictly low-budget film but changes style, abandoning the slow and symbolic approach of his previous works in favor of an aquatic beast movie told with the language of teen-slasher. It's not clear if this change of course and style is a good thing or not. Given the lethargic results of "The Last Winter", one might lean towards a yes, but in the end "Beneath" is a small and forgettable movie that on the spot also entertains, but leaves very little to the viewer. The situation told is very similar to the iconic episode "La zattera" of "Creepshow 2", with a nearly unique and very restricted location that compresses the action and tends to bring out the personalities of the protagonists. Unfortunately, the characters are never interesting, some too similar to each other in appearance and character characterization, some rely on easy stereotypes (there's even the slightly nerdy guy passionate about cinema who shows up with a video camera to record everything!) and you never even manage to get attached to them, with the serious consequence that their fate doesn't matter to the viewer. At the same time, there is an interesting aspect that lies in the evolution of the situation where it is not so much the monster in the water that represents the danger, but the fear itself of the protagonists who, under pressure, bring out the worst in themselves, credibly making survival choices that are mostly cruel and imply the old law of the strongest. A huge point against this film are the special effects, which have very little that is special, especially regarding the rendering of the killer fish, an anachronistic papier-mâché puppet that seems to have come out of some B-movie from the '80s. It's not clear if it's due to the reduced budget or a very precise choice, but the killer fish in this film is too obviously fake, actually dampening the tension of every scene in which it appears. Also, the way the characters die is not very varied and if in a couple of occasions there is a concession to splatter, for the most part everything is resolved with a red stain on the surface of the water. The typical ecological subtext of the genre to which "Beneath" belongs may recall "Wendigo" and especially "The Last Winter", as well as the small concession to the supernatural and the magic of Native Americans which, however, in this case seems a bit out of place in the context. In short, "Beneath" at times convinces because it has rhythm and offers a B-movie spectacle that recalls certain carefree cinema that is always pleasant to watch, but at the same time presents evident defects especially for the lack of care in the special effects and the absolute lack of originality of the subject which makes this one assimilate to too many other films, making it absolutely forgettable. Presented in Italian preview at the 33rd Fantafestival in Rome, "Beneath" is currently unreleased in Italy.