Beneath Us All

We all suffer at certain moments in our lives no matter if we loose a family member, fighting a disease or if we are having a difficult time for a number of reasons. But thankfully we can find a way to move on with our lives, as good as we possibly can. Knowing that life isn´t always easy gives us an oppurtunity to learn how to deal with pain, that it´s ok to speak out if you feel you need a helping hand. But what if you constantly live in darkness and you see no other way out, knowing that you are forever trapped and may never be able to live a normal life again? That is exactly what happened in the 1994 horror film Interview With A Vampire from legendary director Neil Jordan. This film is based on the 1976 book Interview With A Vampire by author Anne Rice and i actually read this book many years ago. I believe it was around the time the film came out in cinema and i have to say i was very impressed by this film adaptation. Interview With A Vampire clearly shows how much suffering it means being a vampire who can never die, unless you are forced to see sunlight. It is a very well made historical horror film set during the year of 1791 where wealthy plantation owner Louis de Pointe du Lac ( Brad Pitt ). After his beloved wife passes away with their unborn child as well, Louis drunkenly wanders the waterfront of New Orleans one night and is attacked by the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt ( Tom Cruise ). Lestat senses Louis´s dissatisfaction with life and offers to turn him into a vampire. Louis accepts the offer, but will soon realise that this is not the life he dreamed of. Interview With A Vampire does not only show a very interesting historical time period where vampires would have fit in perfectly but the film also clearly shows the misery of livin as a vampire. Imagine never being able to age normally or have a normal friendship to anyone. Not even being able to fall in love in a normal way and experience a relationship. Without a doubt one of my personal favourite Tom Cruise films and a must see if you enjoy vampire horror films. I must mention the wonderful performance of a very young actress Kristen Dunst in this film as well. Imagine a different kind of historical connection in a vampire film where the viking era is connected to the story. That does sound interesting right? Well this is exactly what you find in director Harley Wallen´s latest film Beneath Us All but there also seems to be a different story as well. Since i enjoy the work of director Harley Wallen in the past, is this one of the more interesting indepenent horror films released this year or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Julie ( Angelina Daniella Cama ) is a foster child living in a home owned by foster parents Todd Gibbs ( Sean Whalen ) and Janelle Gibbs ( Maria Olsen ) with 3 other foster children. The family situation is really bad where both foster parents are not nice towards the children. One night Julie discover an unknown man lying outside in the woods who calls himself Frey ( Yan Birch ). She takes care of him but doesn´t know his real background, not knowing she and everyone else will be in danger.

I have to start by saying that director Harley Wallen is becoming more professional on every film that he makes. Each film he have released in the last 6 years clearly proves that he is becoming better at making quality films, and you can tell that especially on his latest film Beneath Us All. That doesn´t mean i don´t enjoy his previous film i do, but to see him become a stronger director is of course a sign that Harley is definetely on the right path. I really hope he will get more respect on the indepenent film scene after Beneath Us All. So let´s get into some of the details that i really appreciate about this horror film. I really enjoyed the opening scenes with Swedish vikings as they even spoke Swedish language, this is a detail i think a lot of Scandinavian people will especially appreciate who understand the language. I think connecting a vampire story with a vikings story is actually a really cool idea since i don´t believe i have seen this been done before. I could be wrong of course, but i have never came across this before in any horror film that i have seen in the past. Now, you may think this is a pure vampire film but Beneath Us All is so much more than that. This is especially a deep psychological look into 2 foster parents ( both played really well by actors Sean Whalen and Maria Olsen ) who clearly have a lot of issues and should not be raising foster kids, especially their foster father Todd Gibbs. Wonderful actress Kaiti Wallen gets a chance to shine in her role as social worker Rebecca and i like that her character get a lot more dialogue than we are used to see in her previous films. Director Harley Wallen is here as well as the nicest Detective you have ever seen named Donovan Booker. Legendary actor Yan Birch as the vampire Frey is without a doubt the most interesting character in Beneath Us All and i really love his transformation. To be able to combine a psychological atmosphere in a family home with vampire influences is not an easy task, but director Harley Wallen knows what he is doing and manage to combine this into the story. The only thing i wish i could have gotten more of is probably a bit more of the viking story regarding the vampire Frey. The few details we do find out about the vampire character Frey are very interesting but i feel there is more to his personal story. Otherwise i feel that Beneath Us All is definetely one of the more original vampire films we have seen in quite a while. There is much more depth into this story than you might expect, so if you are looking for a horror film that doesn´t follow the same path as many vampire films usually does, Beneath Us All is definetely the film you should see. I salute you director Harley Wallen for giving hope into indepenent horror films with Beneath Us All and you clearly show that there is a way to combine ideas to do something different in this specific genre and actually make it work. 

Rating: DDDD