The Bunker

It seems as if old Blighty is having a resurgence in it's film industry, particularly in the horror genre. Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later is currently storming around the world, Dog Soldiers impresses us greatly, and Shaun of the Dead looks to be the new Evil Dead 2. What's making it more important is that these are low budget offerings. They're causing the industry to rethink its strategies. Maybe they should stop pumping money into established, so called 'safe' directors (get back in your corner Michael Bay!), and also stop dictating what can and can't go into a film because of a particular studio's image. Anyway, I'm rambling again.

Here we go with Rob Green's (not the shock tactic, former Mr Drew Barrymore) low budget effort. A group of Nazis are ambushed by a troop of American's and hide themselves into a bunker they find along the German/Belgium border. They find the place run by an old, eccentric officer and a 16 year old solider, both terrified for their lives about the impending invasion of American troops. More Nazi soldiers arrive and the troop finds themselves with little ammo to defend their new found fortress. Escape seems impossible for the group, but the young solider reveals that there are tunnels underneath the bunker, originally built for ammo storage, that lead to the other side of the forest. But the tunnels, along with the forest, have a dark story to tell. Stories of plague victims buried alive within the earth the bunker was built on. Although disbelievers, the team decide to stay up top and watch out for any signs of attack from the US soldiers.

During the first watch, the old man is seen wandering down into the tunnel by one of the soldiers. He follows him down and the two promptly disappear. A search team is assembled to look for them, and that's when the movie really kicks in. The characters are stalked by an unseen enemy, not knowing whether it's the US soldiers or something more sinister. Each of their fears are amplified to the point of breaking, causing tension and outbreak between the ranks.

What's so impressive about this film is the quality of the acting. Most low budget horror flicks suffer from bad acting as they simply don't have the resources to find quality actors. Here we have some of the cream of British talent - Jason Flemyng, Jack Davenport and Christopher Fairbank to name a few. Because of their quality, the characterisations are spot on, meaning that the film never ventures towards the usual stereotyping we find in genre movies. We have the brainwashed Hitler fanatic who believes the Nazi ideology to be truer than the word of God, the nervous youngster who joined the army for romantic notions and the dashing Corporal who puts his men before himself. Although we've seen these characters many times before, Green has managed to bring out a performance in them that separates them from the usual. What is also impressive is the use of UK actors to portray German Nazis, complete with their UK accents. This never distracts from the film, and adds another dimension to the characters. They're not the usual cinema Nazis in that they have feelings, emotions and personalities.

So we come to the real reason we're reading this review - is this film scary? Well, it's certainly not your usual ghost story, and does seem to borrow heavily from Brad Anderson's superb Session 9. But sometimes it feels like a wasted opportunity. The film doesn't seem to go as far as you'd like it to go at times, and you're constantly expecting more to happen. Maybe I'm missed the point of it, but it never seems to come up with a satisfying, psychological horror scene. There are moments which will cause a few hairs on the back of your neck to go up, noticeably the scene of the deranged solider running through the tunnels and Jason Flemyng's experience in one of the chambers. But these are merely snippets, and hint at what could have been achieved had Green had more resources at his reach.

DVD wise, Salvation/Film 2000 have done an admirable job here. The picture is very good indeed, but it does show up the flaws on the cheap film stock used. However, I do feel that an AB/Blue Underground style presentation here would have taken some of the dark edge away from the film's personality. Detail in the background was lacking at times, particularly in the forest scenes. But there was no artefracting as far as I could see. Sound is a bit of a let down as we're only given the soundtrack in Dolby surround 2.0. It's hiss free though, and dialogue is very clear. The supernatural effects are wonderfully subtle when they need to be, and brought right up in the mix when the scene calls for it. But it's the extras where this disc really shines.

First up we get an audio commentary with director Rob Green, Richard Campling (production designer) and John Pardue (camera operator). All three are extremely enthusiastic about the project, and Green in particular is quite vocal about his love of film. There are a few instances when the three remain silent, but apart from that, it's an extremely informative commentary. In particular, Green talks about the mounted turret machine gun they used, and the fact that they could only shoot it for 15 seconds as the rounds were so expensive, They had to shoot it once, and then edit it into the film to look as of they were shooting it constantly. Next up we have a making of featurette, which unfortunately runs into the usual territory of all the cast and crew loving each other. It's only 20 minutes long though. Following that we have Schenke's story, a deleted scene which tells some background on the Hitler loving Nazi. It's quite engrossing, but you can tell it's better off out as it would have dragged out the first half of the film. There follows two other deleted scenes, and once again, they're better off out than in. The usual stills gallery follows, along with various press cuttings about the film. We then have four trailers for other releases - Ankle Biters, Raptor, The Dummy and *ahem* Escape from Afghanistan! We're also given the feature presentation's trailer. But the real gems here are the two short films from Rob Green included on this disc. First we have The Black Cat, a wonderful telling of Poe's classic which perfectly captures the insane ramblings of the main character in a talking head style, deviating only to show images cropping up in the character's mind. You could write a whole review just about this one short. Finally, we have The Trick. Set during a Pop Idol style audition for the Magic Circle (although they're called Master Magicians here, but we know...), this is a fabulous, eccentric ride of short. The comedy timing is spot on, particularly the three judges on the panel. In a nutshell, they witness the usual disappearing act, but this one comes with a difference. A superb little comedy, very much in the style of the series Spaced or a segment from The League of Gentlemen.

Overall, this is a fairly impressive film, hampered only by the fact that it could have been so much more. The DVD itself is a cracker, and Salvation is to be applauded for the effort they've put into this disc. I'll be keeping an eye on Rob Green's output - on the strength of his work shown here, he looks to be the next great British talent.

Review by Steve Smith