'Beneath Us' Movie Review

Beneath Us is about a very timely subject: immigration. More specifically, it’s about undocumented immigrants and their inherent struggles. Two brothers, Alejandro (Rigo Sanchez) and Memo (Josue Aguirre), have come to America looking to make some money to support their families back in Mexico. They, along with some other undocumented workers (Roberto “Sanz” Sanchez, Thomas Chavira, Nicholas Gonzalez), are hired by an affluent white couple, Liz and Ben Rhodes (Lynn Collins, James Tupper), to do some work on their house. But Liz and Ben decide to use this opportunity to indulge in their more sadistic tendencies, and they demean and torture the poor workers. Knowing that they can’t contact law enforcement, Alejandro, Memo, and the rest must figure out a way to survive and escape.

Using current political/social issues as themes in horror movies is nothing new, and it can be very effective. In Beneath Us, the political commentary is pretty effective, but that’s really the main thing that the movie has going for it. The film itself is kinda sloppy, but as unsubtle as it is, the social critique is probably its strongest aspect. In the film proper, the workers are not only being exploited for their labor, but also for the Rhodes' cruel games. Liz in particular simply enjoys seeing them being tormented and humiliated. The obvious statement being made by the story here is that the wealthy love being able to use undocumented immigrants for cheaper labor, but they consider them disposable, almost like livestock. The film exaggerates that further by having the villains torture them for their own amusement, adding to the horror element. The commentary here is rather on-the-nose, and similar issues have been handled better in other films (such as Get Out or Sorry to Bother You), but it is a very important and timely notion that really can't be emphasized enough, so its depiction on screen, when done appropriately and accurately, is always welcome (in my opinion).

This acting in the film is pretty hit-or-miss. Our lead actors, Sanchez and Aguirre, are pretty good. They're the only two who get any genuinely emotional moments, and those are played surprisingly well. This is in direct contrast to our main antagonists, who are about as over-the-top as one can get. There are times where this works, but for the most part, their performances are just much too broad and campy, and it can sometimes undermine the otherwise sober social and political unrest which the film intends to emphasize. Don’t get me wrong, the racial violence being committed by said antagonists is still entirely without humor, but the ridiculous nature of their performances can make it difficult for some of the nastier moments to stick the landing.

All of that aside, there is some genuinely good suspense in this movie. You really do feel bad for these laborers, because we are shown just how unfortunate their situation leading up to the primary events of the film. Once the Rhodes’ get a hold of them, their helplessness is very present. There are also a few scenes in which the men are trapped in confined spaces, and while this has been done much better in a plethora of other horror movies, there is a great sense of claustrophobia. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is fairly uninteresting. The exposition scenes are boring and just feel kind of synthetic. It almost feels like a checklist for typical horror protagonists. You know, tragic backstory, rough family life, rivalry that gets patched up at the end, etc. While one does care about the main characters because of the decidedly unglamorous portrayal of the real-life plight of being an undocumented citizen, there isn’t a lot to make one invested in these specific people.

Beneath Us has a great and timely message. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is sometimes undercut by its lack of subtlety, and its villains are far too cartoonish. It does have a lot of intense sequences, but its lack of originality keeps it from achieving the greatness of similar politically-charged horror.

SCORE: 3/5