#148 -- "B" Challenge: Beneath the Dark (2011)

Director: Chad Feehan
Rating: 3/5

This one kind of confused me at first, so bear with me as I try to figure this out. There will be spoilers, because I just can't seem to find my way around them with confusing movies. It started off with a couple, Paul and Adrienne, on their way to a wedding in Los Angeles. Things got a little steamy in the car, and they almost killed themselves when they ran off the road. Being as tired and horny as they were, they decided to stop for the night. They found a little motel called Roy's and checked in. The man who ran the place, Frank, was a little strange but he seemed nice enough. He just couldn't leave Paul alone, though. He kept asking if he needed anything, and following him like a sick puppy trying to help him out. It got creepy quick. Frank was constantly having flashbacks about his rough relationship with his wife, but we weren't sure were it was going until the very end. The first night Paul, after a little failed sexual encounter with Adrienne, went out to the motel's cafe for some coffee and pie. Frank was there, and he gave Paul a little unwanted advice about how he should make sure he never loses Adrienne. He left, and another man came in who wanted to talk about God. Paul told him he didn't believe in that, and the man became angry. Paul returned to his room to find a message for him carved into the bathroom cabinet. It directed him to a certain passage in the bible in the nightstand. In the book, there was a letter for him. We never got to know what the letter said, but it seriously freaked Paul out. When he went to show Adrienne the message in the bathroom, it was gone, as was the letter in the bible. It turned out that the people in the motel knew a little more about Paul than he was comfortable with. After having a shower together, Paul and Adrienne discovered a VHS in the television depicting something horrible that Paul did when he was in college. It truly was a horrible thing, and Adrienne left him after watching it. There was a scuffle between Paul, Frank, and Frank's wife Sandy out in the parking lot, and Paul suddenly woke up in his room with Adrienne still there. Maybe it was a dream? I'm not really sure about that part. But anyways, she disappeared again, and the man from the diner returned. He explained to Paul that he and Adrienne had actually died in that car crash, and that he was giving him the same opportunity that he'd given Frank. If he could guide the next soul into the "truth" then he would be granted an eternity with Adrienne. However, the next soul arrived (the identity of that soul was the best part of the movie, to me), and Paul really didn't do much with him before the guide-man told him that he could leave. He said that he'd made the right decision. This is the part that confused me, really. What decision did he make? Where was he going? Did he get to have Adrienne back? What happened next told me no, he did not get Adrienne back, but I hope I'm wrong.

So, what were these people? They were angels, or ghosts, or something like that. The man who gave Paul his new "job" called himself the son of god, though I don't think he was supposed to be jesus. So I'm really not sure about all that. I'm not sure why he let Paul leave before he really did anything, either. This movie was kind of interesting. It wasn't scary or even creepy at all, but the characters were very well developed so I was able to get into it. The ending wasn't great, and it just left me confused. It was more of a religious drama than a horror movie, and the whole religious thing usually doesn't do much for me. In the end, it was just okay.