The Deepening
Review by Mari Lynne Rupp

It starts with a good idea...Shell-shocked Former 9-11 Fireman assigned to clean-up duty gets burned out and transfers to his Tennessee hometown to get his shit straight. He begins to have nightmares and horrible visions of friends being tortured and mutilated, visions which begin to come true....

Before I go on and you predict the rest of this movie, I'll jump in by saying it was a delight seeing Gunnar Hansen in a slasher flick again. As usual, he does a bang-up job, and the script has decent potential. The scriptwriter and one of the directors portrays main firefighter Jim Combs, who's new buddy, Ted, is said shell-shocked former 9-11 crew. He tries to help his friend loosen up and deal with his issues, but is unfortunately sucked into the mysterious situation....This is where it goes wrong.

Cliched writing, stilted acting and a drawn-out storyline impede this feature, and the predictable "twist" ending is just overdone and tired. Even Debbie Rochon doesn't seem to have her heart in her brief performance. The f/x are even cliched---Each murder/stabbing/shooting has the murder victim spitting blood in each and every scene. Come on guys...When you stab someone in the chest, it takes a few minutes for the blood to fill the lungs, resulting in the foamy blood coming out of the mouth effect...

I'm afraid I was watching this show, thinking how my time would've been better reviewing "Young Frankenstein" instead...Maybe next time, Jim.