I really wanted to like Beneath - I always try to go into any movie with an open mind. I think it's always best to give a movie the benefit of the doubt - if you go in looking for something to not like, chances are you'll find it. And in creature features, there's usually lots of things to not like. To watch them on a regular basis, you have to love them, warts and all. That being said, I was a little thrown at first that our creature in Beneath was not some crazy cryptid or mutated beast, but just a really big fish. But after I thought about it, it's a refreshing concept - everyone is (still) trying to one up Jaws with super-intelligent sharks, or sharks crossed with other animals, or Ghost Sharks. I thought it was admirable that Beneath got back to the basics with a big, simple thing that is pretty much just after a meal.
And all the (practical!) fish stuff is super-awesome! But unfortunately, the non-giant fish stuff is far from it. The victims that are stranded on the boat (which starts about 15 minutes in and takes up the rest of the movie) are kind of annoying - the acting is pretty bad and the motivations of their characters seem pretty inconsistent. So while I was really digging things for 30-40 minutes, it's just a slow, steady decline once you get settled in.
Our story is about a group of six "friends" in the classic horror movie vein of "people you can't really see hanging out together in real life." They are celebrating their recent high-school graduation with a little beach party on the far side of the lake. Johnny's family owns some land on the lake, and he is (secretly) aware of the vicious creature lurking beneath the surface. But apparently, Johnny doesn't care. As the group crosses the lake, three of them go for a swim, and Johnny can't convince them not to (he stops short of saying there's a monster in the lake). This of course attracts our giant fish, who not only claims his first victim, but also does some structural damage to the boat. From that point on, it's a ticking clock scenario... the fish keeps eating the things they try to paddle with, and as the boat fills with water, our friends need to figure out a way to distract the fish and get back to shore.
*This paragraph is a SPOILER for the best scene in the movie*
This first kill is actually pretty great in how subdued it is. Usually, these sorts of first kills go one of two ways - either offscreen (to maintain some mystery about the creature) or super-balls-out-crazy (to freak everybody out). Here, we get good look at the giant fish (so no more mystery), and he clips an artery in one of our character's arms. It's really low key as far as horror movie deaths go, but more effective than some crazy jump scare. Plus, they feed her body to the fish, in what is probably the creepiest scene in the film - seeing a young woman treated like so much chum... the way she gently bobs and is bumped around before being violently pulled under is genuinely unsettling.
It also sets the stage for the rest of the film, as the plan for the group to get back to shore (as well as the plan to get the film to feature length) is to have some sort of Survivor-esque vote where they sacrifice one of the group as a distraction (the idea being they can paddle to shore faster if the fish is busy eating). They go back to this heavy-handed drama way too often, and when the inevitable lying/backstabbing starts up, you haven't really been given any reason to care about any of them.
Incidentally, I think we're supposed to care the most for Johnny - but he was kind of a dick for bringing people to the lake in the first place. That's kind of unforgivable to me. The way it's set up from the opening credits, I had thought that Johnny was going out there to hunt the thing, but that never materializes.
And I'm not saying you have to like everybody (or anybody), but it at least helps if they are realistic characters. The people in Beneath just kind of change as it suits the need of the story, but never in an organic way. Also, at times they seem pretty lackadaisical about their paddling back to shore - why would you stop to argue when your life is literally on the line? But they do it often.
So the human element isn't that good here. But the fish element is great. It's this big, practical creation, and I'm no ichthyologist (or fish-scientist, pre-google), but it looks good and moves pretty damned realistically to me. A big creature that lurks underneath the surface of the water is a near universal fear. So the shots of a giant, tangible mass swimming just underneath the boat (kind of taunting our friends) were the scariest parts of the movie for me. One of the extras on the DVD was a "making-of" (one that's just a bunch of random BTS footage with no narration or flow). But seeing the scuba divers control the giant fish puppet, mostly by swimming under it and out of sight, was a really cool peek at some movie magic. Also, filming a movie on a body of water would suck.
Overall, I was disappointed with Beneath. (There are many bad puns you can make here.) I loved the fish and the creative use of the first victim. From there on out though, it was kind of repetitive and a little annoying. Not a disaster by any means, but nothing I would go out of my way to see. Unless you really want to see a pretty rad huge fish.
I would not recommend this film.
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