Under the Bed - Review

Under the Bed is the new film from Steven Miller director of the recent Silent Night remake and Automaton Transfusion. Described as a "suburban nightmare" the story centers around two brothers who are being tormented by a creature living under their bed. With no one around to believe them they are forced to take matters into their own hands and face the creature before it can devour them.

I was pretty excited to check out Under the Bed as it looked to be a throwback to some of my favorite films from the 80's like Monster Squad or The Lost Boys. Unfortunately, it doesn't come close to reaching the heights of it's influences. While those films are immensely re-watchable due to their great pacing, inventive story telling and likable characters Under the Bed is lacking in almost all of these areas. The pacing is off as the story seems to retread the same territory several times without much happening to push it forward. The beginning and end move at a pretty brisk pace with some decent character development at the front of the film and some good action and special effects at the end but the middle of the film feels lost and bogged down. Once it has been established that something is living under the bed and we learn the truth behind the older brothers past there isn't much more to do.
Unfortunately the pacing isn't helped at all by the characters. Most of them are really unlikable. The father is a complete dickhead to his sons without a good reason. For example, his youngest son has a fit in school and his reaction is to yell at him for it. He then locks him in his room alone to teach him he needs to sleep in a bed like a "normal" person. There are a couple of other kids introduced to the story as well and again they are assholes. I would have liked to have seen them join up with our two protagonists rather than further ostrasize them. Almost everyone in this story is unlikable and you just want the creature to come out and devour all of them. The only characters that are close to likable are the brothers. The older brother, Neal, gets to be a bit much with his constant brooding but it's more of a character flaw and at least we understand why he is that way it doesn't make me dislike him.

There are a couple of positive points to Under the Bed. For one the story is interesting even if it's not well executed. It's a good idea that may have worked better in a short film format. There is a lot of filler in there but the general idea of a group of kids fighting a creature that is devouring them while they sleep is a good one. It worked in A Nightmare on Elm Street and it could have worked here. Maybe if they had homaged the 80's style more closely by adding several kids who are in peril and have to band together to survive the story would have worked better. They could have built up some back story behind these additional characters and given us more people to root for. The special effects are also very good here. The creature design is impressive and there are some effective and disgusting gore scenes that are very well executed. The only issue I have with these gore scenes is they kind of come out of nowhere. For the entire film the violence is almost non-existant and out of nowhere we get some over the top gore effects. It seems the film earned its R rating in about 5 minutes of film and that's a bit disappointing. If you're going to go for the gore at least give us more of it or spread it out through the film. Building up to the finale with hints of what is to come rather than just throwing it in there may have worked better.

Overall, Under the Bed is an honest attempt at creating a fun and scary film that unfortunately fails primarily due to unlikable characters, uneven pacing and a poorly written second act. The trailer had given me high hopes at a nice throwback to some films I genuninely love and re-visit often but unfortunately it let me down.

2/5