Title: Beneath The Darkness

Opens: January 6, 2012

Countless interviews with major actors make us conclude that most would like to play villains, and why not? The bad guys get all the good lines while the heroes are so goody-two-shoes that their personalities can seem less believable that those of the rotters. Albert Brooks (“I’ll have a mushroom omelette, very ltitle butter”) got his chance in the fast-paced film “Drive,” succeeding beyond expectations, winning guild awards from New York to L.A. Now Dennis Quaid steps up to the celluloid plate in his first role as a psycho and does not fare nearly as well. His acting is so over-the-top that the audience cannot help laughing, but the trouble is that “Beneath the Darkness,” as written by Bruce Wilkinson, goes over as neither comedy nor psychological thriller. Jack Nicholson might be able to pull off the role as he did in “The Shining,” but Quaid, with his signature ruddy complexion, simply does not look the part.

As directed by Argentine-born Martin Guigui and edited so choppily by Eric Potter that some scenes get cut off just as things are getting interesting, “Beneath the Darkness” finds the usual horror shtick: idiotic high-school kids (played by thesps in their early twenties) almost begging to be killed by exposing themselves to mighty dangerous situations. As filmed on location at Smithville, Texas by Massimo Zeri, high-school buddies Travis (Tony Oller), Brian (Stephen Lunsford), Danny (Devon Werkheiser) and Abby (Aimee Teegarden), curious about the goings-on at the home of town mortician Vaughn Ely (Dennis Quaid), notice that through the cover of the blinds Ely is dancing with his wife–which is not altogether unusual, except that the woman has been dead for two years. We have good reason to suspect that Ely has killed at least two people since the cuckold has buried her alleged lover live. Breaking into the house when the owner is away, the foursome are trapped when Ely shows up, none too happy even though he knows the teens, adding another to his list of murders. Not believed by the town cop, Sgt Nickerson (Brett Cullen), the surviving kids determine to get the evidence needed to put the man away–whether in the looney bin or prison.

Some of the unintentional laughter in the script comes from a statement by Travis, the leader of the bunch. Digging his own grave, he is dumb enough to call out “You’re a psycho” to his tormentor. Mr. Quaid’s final monologue puts him into Jack Nicholson’s “The Shining” neighborhood, but the actor simply does not look comfortable. Best to stick with saving the world as he tries mightily to do in “The Day After Tomorrow.”

Some of the crowd scenes work well and should have been elongated. Somehow Texas produces great high-school marching bands: we see Smithville’s actual musicians on the football field as well as one look at a local parade.

Rated R. 98 minutes (c) 2012 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online

Overall – C+