- Directed by Larry Fessenden
- Written by Tony Daniel, Brian Smith
- Stars Bonnie Dennison, Daniel Zovatto, Jon Orsini
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_wB8CPYc7A
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The peril seems a little bit contrived and brought on themselves at times, but it’s a decent creature feature. People trapped start turning on each other, making the situation worse. The cast works well together, the practical effects are pretty good, and it entertains overall.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a lake; it’s steamy and isolated-looking. Under the water, we zoom in on a swimmer. Something comes up behind her and— Johnny wakes up.
Johnny, Kitty, Simon, Matt, Zeke, and Deb are taking a road trip to the very isolated, private lake. As they talk, we get some idea of who these people are. It takes all of them to lug the big, heavy rowboat to the water. Kitty whines that there’s no cell service out here. Johnny likes her, so he gives her a big tooth on a necklace– “for safety.” She gives it back, saying she’s with Matt now, it’s not high school anymore.
Suddenly, Mr. Parks, an old man, shows up. “Does your grandpa know you’re here?” he asks. “You know better than that, Johnny.” The old man warns that Johnny can’t let anyone in the water. Clearly, Parks and Johnny know there’s something wrong with this lake.
The six recent high school graduates pile into the rowboat and head out into the water. Halfway across the lake, Matt, Deb, and Kitty want to swim. Johnny just wants the group to cross the lake. Johnny puts on his protective tooth necklace when no one is looking. Something bumps the boat from underneath.
Johnny sees something big moving under water toward the three swimmers, but he doesn’t say anything. Everyone gets creeped out and gets back in the boat. They lose the oar, Deb reaches for it, and a huge fish bites her badly. The fish bites the lost oar in half as Deb bleeds out– into the water.
Simon gets fed up and hits the big fish with an oar, which breaks, so he stabs it with the rest of the oar. After things calm down a bit, everyone wonders why Johnny brought them here. Kitty talks about the necklaces; yeah, Johnny knew the monster was there all along.
Zeke suggests they use Deb’s body as a distraction. They push her over the side, and when the fish eats her, they all hand-paddle as fast as they can. When the fish returns, Zeke suggests that maybe Johnny can jump in as a distraction, since this is all his fault. They decide to vote on who gets thrown in.
Johnny jumps in, and the fish goes right after him. As the fish gets busy, the others paddle by hand again. Everyone argues until the fish comes back. The boat has a small hole in it, so this can’t go on forever. When it’s time to throw Zeke in, he causes dissension between the two brothers, Zeke and Matt. The brothers literally toss Zeke overboard and he’s soon eaten.
We cut to Johnny, who has made it to shore along with the boat’s trash (if the trash floated to shore, why hasn’t the boat?). He looks over at a second boat. Will he use it?
Kitty, Matt, and Zeke use the hatchet from Johnny’s bag to hit the fish. It does seem to go away. They all see Johnny coming in the motorboat. Rather than pick them up, he offers to tow them to shore, which causes more arguing. He throws them a rope.
The fish runs into Johnny’s boat, and he gets tangled into the rope, which goes round and round, strangling him. Just to make things worse, the little boat sinks. Johnny’s body floats to the surface, but the fish ignores him.
They cut off the seats from the boat and use them for oars, but Kitty thinks they’re paddling in circles. Matt decides it’s time to talk about Simon and Kitty cheating on him. Simon wants to throw Kitty overboard as a distraction.
The two brothers fight, and soon, Kitty’s the one in the water. She soon disappears, but the brothers keep fighting. It doesn’t take long until they’re all in the water. Matt is eaten.
Some time later, we see kitty on top of the capsized small boat next to Johnny’s body. She reaches down and grabs the necklace and puts it on. The fish then immediately eats Johnny. She comes to the conclusion that the necklace is some kind of protection from the fish and starts swimming to the shore.
Kitty makes it, but so does Simon. She says she saw him murder his brother– so he drowns her.
Old man Parks shows up and catches Simon holding Kitty’s body. He’s got Zeke’s camera that washed up on shore hours ago. Turns out, the biggest monster on this lake is Mr. Parks, who says the lake isn’t finished with Simon yet. Parks shoots Simon in the leg, and the blood draws in the fish.
Brian’s Commentary
I still don’t understand what Johnny’s game plan was. Why bring these people here in the first place?
Even before the action starts, there’s just way too many people standing up in that little boat. The lake never really looks all that big– even with one oar, they could have made it to shore fairly quickly. Depending on the angle of the shot, they never really look that far from shore, as the plot requires. Also, the fish isn’t that big, how could it eat five whole people?
The creature effects are actually pretty decent. It does, in fact, look like a big fish. It’s not very expressive, but it does the job.
It’s not the “smartest” film going, but if a fish picking people off one at a time appeals to you, this is the film.
Kevin’s Commentary
There was never a good explanation on why Johnny and the old guy seemed to know about the monstrous fish but still let them go out in the boat. And the shore didn’t seem as far away as they made it out to be sometimes. But nitpicking aside, I found myself being drawn into the story, and I liked it quite a bit.
Be the first to comment on "2013 Beneath"