Somewhere in Maine, Julie (Angelina Danielle Cama) has grown up with foster parents Todd (Sean Whalen) and Janelle (Maria Olsen), but at this point, she can’t wait until she’s eighteen. Despite how close she is to being free, she keeps running away from home, which alerts a social worker named Rebecca (Kaiti Wallen) to her case.

The supernatural part of this story — the one that ties it into the flashback that opens the film — is that Julie has found a pendant and a secret Viking burial ground that holds Frey (Yan Birch), a monstrous killing machine that has been buried alive for hundreds of years. She feels for the creature and hides it in a shed, bringing it food when she can. But as you can imagine, that won’t be enough and he’s soon feeding on her neighbors.

Beneath Us All mixes up social issues, Rebecca’s workaholic nature and the growing vampiric bond between Frey and Julie, as well as the money issues that are getting to Todd and Janelle. At the same time, Detective Booker (Harley Wallen) is investigating the murders that keep growing and soon destroy two of the foster kids Sarah and Erica (Hanna and Emilia Wallen). Now only Stephen (Malachi Myles) is left and he’s fearing for his life while his foster parents refuse to leave their refuge.

This movie touches on things without hitting you over the head with them, like how Todd and Janelle have had so many problems yet continue to foster kids for fifteen years. Do they love them? Does it make them happy? The film is ambiguous in the right way, the way that life can be at times. The fact that natural nurturer Julie is turned to the side of Frey also feels that way. It’s the first time she’s had power and she’s going to use it.

The entire Wallen family seems to have put their lives into this movie, as Harley directed from a script by Bret Miller. I’ve enjoyed past movies I’ve seen by the director (Ash and Bone, Tale of Tails, A Bennett Song Holiday) but this is the most complete and intelligent work I’ve seen from him yet.

Oh yeah! Sean Whalen was Roach and Yan Birch was The Stairmaster in The People Under the Stairs.