Review by Quin
There was a time when low budget films were either great or awful. A low budget used to mean that the entire production and the look of the picture often suffered. These days, I’m seeing a lot of films that look like hardly any money went into making it, but technically and visually – they aren’t too bad. Now granted, I have not seen a monetary figure attached to Under the Bed. But judging by the effects and lack of stars, I would venture to guess that this was a cheapie.
The premise of Under the Bed is simple and we’ve seen it all before. Wikipedia’s outline of the plot is adequate: “Two brothers team up to battle a creature under the bed, in what is being described as a suburban nightmare tale.” Sounds awesome right? Well there is slightly more to it than that. The older brother has just gotten out of a hospital after suffering a mental breakdown following some sort of traumatic experience. He comes home to a house that always has the lights off, where his little brother, father and stepmother try to get on with life as if nothing happened. Good thing because for a long time pretty much nothing happens.
The first supernatural event takes place in a washing machine, not under a bed. And then it takes about 30 minutes before we finally see the bed mentioned in the title. The two boys are sitting there talking about scary things when they stop and look at the bed. At this moment the camera pans ever-so-slowly-toward-the-bed. But that’s it. As viewers, we just look at it. Yep, that’s a bed alright. I bet there’s something under it. The next time we see the bed, we’re treated to growling noises. See, I told you there was something under there.
In another scene, we see one of our heroes, I think it’s the younger kid – honestly I don’t even know anymore – he’s sitting in science class when he falls asleep. This gives the director a chance to make us think we’re watching A Nightmare on Elm Street. All of these disjointed scenes lead up to the big battle against the evil lurking under the bed. This comes complete with the montage of the heroes getting ready with their supplies while music to get you pumped up plays loudly.
Overall this movie is boring, predictable and unimaginative. The script puts too much detail in the wrong places and then uses huge jumps in logic to get where it needs to go. I think a backstory at the beginning would have been a good idea. Which is somewhat ironic, since there are so many films that start off with a backstory that really shouldn’t.
I would go as far as to say that this could have been a really good short film. If director Stephen C. Miller had filmed a 5 minute version of the first hour of this movie and then kept the last 15 minutes, it would have been kind of great. In the final battle there are some good looking visual effects and the scenes are well lit using only flashlights. But the effects leading up are disappointing and are things we’ve seen. The first look we get at the monsters are only an arm and a claw. Which, let’s be honest, looks an awful lot like Vinz Clortho, the keymaster of Gozer in Ghostbusters.
Under the Bed takes itself way too seriously, and seems to be a mishmash of so many other things. While it feels like an Elm Street movie mixed with a serious version of the Troma film Monster in the Closet, it really could have benefited from some silliness and probably should have been an animated kids film. What I’m saying is any other way this movie could have been done would have been better than what it actually was. Good thing it’s not available in the U.K. and it doesn’t look like it will be. But if you don’t believe me when I say it stinks and you just want to find out for yourself, it’s available on Video on Demand in the US and you can rent the DVD from Netflix. Which incidentally, only has a trailer. Much like the film itself, the features on the DVD aren’t so special.
Under the Bed is available now on Region 1 DVD, Blu-ray and on demand services, via Xlrator Media.