Under the Bed reminded me a lot of The Hole from about a month ago. It's got a kind of similar vibe: kind of more of an 80s style, kid-friendly adventure/horror mash up rather than an outright horror film - Under the Bed doesn't really earn it's R-rating until the end. And both feature brothers fighting off some kind of unseen/undefinable evil, emanating from... a hole and under the bed, respectively. (Both share a lack of creativity in the title as well).
Under the Bed is a little less "fun" though. It's about two brothers, Neal (maybe late teens) and Paulie (maybe 12-13). Neal has been living out of state with an aunt for a couple of years, after he (maybe accidentally?) burned down their old house, accidentally killing their mother in the process. See, fun! His dad is having him come home to meet his future stepmother Angela. But being home brings back some bad memories for Neal - mainly memories of an ACTUAL MONSTER that lived under his bed and tried to kill him on numerous occasions. Of course, no one else except Paulie has seen this creature, and with Neal gone, the monster has turned his attention to the younger sibling. And now that Neal is back home, the monster seems angrier than ever before. The brothers decide they need to finish him off, once and for all.
The main thing I noticed about Under the Bed is that it's a little unclear just who the audience is supposed to be. It's rated-R, but there certainly isn't anything for the first 4/5 of this thing that would necessitate that. While gorehounds will be pleased by the very end of the film, I wonder if it's a case of too little, too late. There's some unnerving moments of horror and creepy atmosphere (mostly courtesy of an oft-used fog machine), but at times it seems to be handling things with kiddie gloves, you know?
The Hole was PG-13 and had a younger brother (maybe nine?) - you go in expecting more of an easy-going experience. But the majority of Under the Bed just felt more family-friendly than I was expecting.
But on the flipside, thematically Under the Bed isn't going to play with a younger audience - what with the broken home and all - and the intense gore at the end is going to turn off any non-horror folks. What is the exact opposite of having your cake and eating it too? Because I think Under the Bed just wouldn't work for a lot of people.
But regardless, I liked it. Under the Bed was a nice change of pace - it's not hampered by *needing* to stay at PG-13 or appealing to kids, but it doesn't feel the need to be totally crazy either. The alternating tones of the film are pretty well balanced. There are enough pedal to the metal horror films out there, so it's nice to come across something like this - something that is confident and comfortable in its own lower-key skin. Under the Bed is well made and is fine doing its own thing. It focuses more on its characters and has a little slower pace than you would expect for a story about a kid-killing monster living under a bed.
Horror-wise? The monster is a nice looking man-in-suit piece of work - he's a little more amorphous looking than I would like, but it's still a fun design. The afore mentioned attacks at the end are fist-pumpingly great, and there's a pretty decent sense of forboding atmosphere throughout. There are some more ghostly elements to the monster that I didn't really understand (floating things), but this is not the sort of film that bothers explaining things. I guess you just need to accept that there's a monster living under this kid's bed, for whatever reason, and just roll with it.
The acting was probably the weakest point of the film. The younger brother Paulie (Gattlin Griffith) was pretty good for a pre/early teen, but I wasn't totally on board Jonny Weston as Neal. I don't know if it was a performance or directorial issue, but he plays Neal as just a little *too* tortured, and just a little too much of a dick. I get that Neal has had a hard life and what not, but there are times where he just crosses the line into being unlikeable, which just doesn't jibe with the overall tone/goal of the film.
But that doesn't sink the thing by any means. Overall, Under the Bed is a pretty fun and different-feeling flick. The mashup of tones worked for me, and while I wasn't totally blown away I had a good enough time with it.
I would probably recommend this film.
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