5. Beneath The Darkness
In between reading The Tell-Tale Heart (foreshadowing) in his English class, Travis (Tony Oller) does odd jobs for Ely (Dennis Quaid), the local mortician whose elevator doesnt go all the way up to the top. When he discovered his wife cheating on him, Ely killed her, stole the corpse and kept it in his attic, but he takes it out when hes feeling nostalgic, and their silhouettes can be seen behind his curtains. Upon witnessing this, Travis, whos clearly never watched Disturbia, decides to break in one evening accompanied by Abby (Aimee Teegarden) and Danny (Devon Werkheiser). No sooner have they met the (embalmed) lady of the house than Ely appears to hurl Danny down the stairs, stomp on his neck, and casually remark that most accidents happen in the home. Then he calls the cops, who of course arrest the meddling kids but whaddya know? dont believe their story. If this all sounds like another teen-oriented take on Rear Window, with unhealthy doses of Psycho tossed in for bad measure, guess what? It is. But its hard to say which parts were meant to be funny, which parts werent or what to make of Dennis Quaids shark-like grin.
Ian Watson
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
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