By Forris Day Jr.
“20 Feet Below: Darkness descending” is a pretty decent flick. It takes place in abandoned subway tunnels below the city. There are different levels and the deeper you go the nastier the characters are. At the very shallowest levels are the regular homeless people who use the tunnels as shelter and a place to create their home. Each person has a little space they set up their stuff. The tunnels are run by ruthless gangs that live deeper down in the Earth. The head guy is Angel (Danny Trejo). Most of the homeless people fear going any deeper that where they live for fear of encountering the mysterious Angel.
The subterranean world is all but ignored until a documentary filmmaker (Kinga Philipps) descends into the passageways to search for Angel so that she can interview him and show the world the secrets of the underground labyrinth. Angel catches wind of her plans and is not interested in advertising his kingdom below the surface of the bustling city. She does find him but now she wishes she had not. Will she survive to finish her film or will it become another bad “found footage” movie in years to come?
The movie was OK with pretty decent acting. Trejo, a usual, is a bit cheesy and unbelievable, but that is his charm. I really like the idea of setting the movie underground in abandoned subway passages but it was not convincing to me at all. Lots of tricks were used including black background with just lighting on the actors to create the feel of being underground. It seemed more like they were on a stage because of lack of detail in the setting, but that aside it is a watchable movie. Any indie film fan will appreciate this film.
It’s not the “Pulse Pounding Thriller” it is advertised to be, but it’s worth a watch, with a satisfactory storyline. A bit slow and repetitive at parts but not to the point where it becomes totally uninteresting. I say check it out. Like a subway tunnel, this movie may be destine to remain underground.
Rating: 5/10 – “Hey Danny Trejo, I’m still not afraid to ride the subway”