Beneath (2013)
Save your breath.
- Mine setting is creepy even without scary events happening. Claustrophobics beware.
- Initial plot setup is sound enough - a challenge issued and accepted between "scholar" type and "labor" type folks.
- Limited effects work is pretty solid.
- From a viewer with no mining experience, it passes off as a very believable and solid mining operation.
- Movie spoils itself by starting off with an after-movie event stating there is a survivor. I'm no rocket scientist, but one of these characters isn't like the others.
- Camerawork can be a bit rough, those easily sickened by things like "I'm spinning" found footage-esque shots should be warned it happens a few times.
- Is the implication ghosts, or just crazy? We may never know for sure.
- What idiot would design a safety structure with oxygen tanks on the outside for mining emergencies? I mean, I understand it's for plot use and all, but it's still just lazy.
Opinion
A great setting for an alright movie is how this one turned out. I give it props for instilling the feeling of a claustrophobic space closing in around you, but just as easily need to take it away for some of the scattered approach to the story and always-aggravating "start with part of the end scene" start. Consisting largely of slower moments, it somehow still effectively conveys a sense of urgency and danger after things finally start rolling. It's a bit unfortunate that with how the storytelling unfolds, we are left uncertain as to whether or not the root fear of the movie should be labeled as crazy or ghosts however.