20 Ft Below: The Darkness Descending (2014)
Below the streets of New York is a dark and dangerous world hidden in the shadows of abandoned subway tunnels and miles of forgotten infrastructure. When a young documentary filmmaker goes into these tunnels to uncover the unseen stories of the people living below our feet, she finds out that there is more to be afraid of than the dark. A mysterious figure, living beyond the reach of the law, has declared war on the outside world that threatens to tear apart the fragile underground society living in the tunnels and maybe even the city above it.
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Undescribable Perfection
A lot of fun.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Angel (Danny Trejo) is a tough intellectual anarchist who rules the deep underground of NYC. In the opening scene he kidnaps and kills the wealthy Jason Wells (Peter Dobson) which leads to an unsuccessful police sweep. Jake (Frank Krueger) is an ex-cop who lost his wife, rules the area between the streets and Angel's world. Chelsea (Kinga Philipps) is a reporter who successfully gets an interview with Angel and then takes her time leaving the tunnels.Jake's speeches on his lost love were as badly written and delivered as Angel's anarchy fluff. In fact the whole film had a nausea that reminded me of "Billy Jack."The film is supposed to be a metaphor about living in the dark and alone with Jake representing the microcosm and the underworld the macrocosm. It was done rather sloppily with unrealistic characters.For Trejo fans it is far better than "Voodoo Possession" but not as good as "Bullet." Can't wait for "Volcano Zombies."No sex or nudity. I don't recall any F-bombs.
Review: What an awful movie. I lost interest after the first 15 minutes and I really struggled to stay awake through the rest. I didn't know what was happening from one scene to the next and I didn't really care. I know that it was about this underworld with good and evil living there but that was about it. Everyone that starred in the movie was overacting except for a Trejo who was pretty cool. By the end of the film I didn't know who was who or what was what and I wasn't about to rewind the film to find out. It amazing me how films like these actually get a budget. Awful!Round-Up: None of the actors in this film, except for Trejo, looks familiar so I can't really comment about there previous work or there careers. The leading character got on my nerves after a while and his whole moody persona was annoying. I understand that the character had a shady past and the whole dark underworld feel was needed for the character, but it was hard to watch. Basically it was another bad choice on my behalf but I'm sure that this type of film has it's audience, somewhere in the wilderness. I recommend this movie to people who are into there thrillers about a dark underworld controlled by a evil man who doesn't like outsiders. 1/10
Naive documentary film maker Chelsea goes into the underground of NYC to investigate the homeless people living in abandoned subway tunnels. She encounters senile former military, a strange artist, teen run aways, crazed former drug addicts, a disgraced ex-cop (Jake), and a self- righteous gang (the Chosen) of violent cretins led by Angel.Chelsea interviews a few of the cops (whose leaders want some action against the Chosen), Angel himself, the artist, two teen runaways, and Jake. The Chosen have it out for Jake and the teens.So, what happens in the inevitable show down?-----Scores-----Cinematography: 7/10 Usually clear enough.Sound: 3/10 Bad leveling. The music played during intervals often seemed irrelevant.Acting: 3/10 Danny Trejo showed his usual screen presence. Louis Mandylor was competent with the few lines he was given. The rest, not so good.Screenplay: 1/10 Were there any points to this film? Not that I saw. Also, the clothes worn were too clean, the people looked way too clean and too healthy. How is it that Jake has a new, spotless bottle of expensive looking booze? How does he have brand new candles in perfectly clean holders? One of the women in the tunnels has a new looking guitar; what are the chances that would not be stolen? The preaching (from Angel and from the group who hang with the artist) seemed out of place, as did the spouting of statistics.
Sorry but this movie does not work for we.Danny Trejo being on the cover was enough for me to watch the film, but too bad his stardom did nothing to make the film better. I've seen him save his fair share of B-movies just by appearing on screen for a few minutes and being bad ass, but this movie is not it.I did like the concept of a filmmaker documenting the people living in New York City's subway system, with one of them played by Trejo, seeing himself as a messenger of God who slays the wicked, and by wicked I mean the privileged Wall Street types, so obviously he's able to find a group of people willing to help him rid the city of this vermin.The film making is very lackluster, enough so that the found footage documentary style the film is doing seems so played out. You know the film is cheap just by the fact that they can't get Trejo to even comment to a half hour worth of footage. Not really good when he's your main villain and the most interesting out of his army.Danny's appearance is truly just a few minutes and it's not worth the trouble to see it just for that. I've seen him make a cameo like apprentice in far better B-movies like, In the Blood, which is worth seeing, so see that.