The Bunker [DVD] [2002]

 

 

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Have you ever put a puzzle together, only to discover that a couple of pieces are missing in the end? It's a bummer, right? You can still see the puzzle image with a good understanding of exactly what it is depicting, but it's still incomplete, and you're left feeling frustrated. That's basically the way I feel about The Bunker. I know what the film is trying to express, and I even understand the story, but I can't get past the missing pieces that would have made the story much more effective. Maybe I shouldn't have started watching it at 3 AM, but I just didn't feel that The Bunker made complete sense toward the end, as it never really threshes out some of its characters and ideas.

The pieces seemed to be in place for a pretty creepy film. It's 1944, and you've got a ragtag group of German army survivors holed up in an anti-tank bunker, with - presumably - American forces all around them and a mysterious, unfinished tunnel system below. Into this mix you also have some disaffection among the troops and some important questions as to what really happened out in the field just before these guys retreated into the bunker. Trapped between an enemy without and an enemy within, the viewer is basically poised to find out just what or who will get to these desperate soldiers first. The fact that two of these soldiers are an old man with a habit of getting things mixed up and a young teenager eager to prove himself just makes things more interesting. As for those tunnels beneath the bunker, all we know is that they were never finished and that there's something decidedly not good about them. The old man tells the story of how a large number of bubonic plague victims were rounded up, slaughtered, and buried there on what then became cursed ground.

Naturally, someone disobeys orders and heads down there, and it's not long before the others are down there seeing what they can find. Soon enough, things start to get really weird. The men hear strange voices, get separated, and begin to lose it - especially one really gung ho soldier. Some of them think the Americans are already in the tunnels and are trying to screw with their minds, while others fear they are being punished by the dead for their sins - for reasons that are gradually revealed in a series of flashbacks to the events immediately preceding their retreat into the bunker. Of course, the dark souls of those once slaughtered there also can't be ignored completely.

With so much going for it, though, the film just sort of fizzles in the final half hour, leaving the viewer with something that barely manages to rise above the level of a bunch of guys wandering through some creepy tunnels. With all of the hard work that went into the film, especially in terms of generating the creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere, you expect a much bigger payoff that you actually get.

This was not a big-budget film, and it is sort of strange for a bunch of German soldiers to speak English with the queen's accent (but much stranger to see a seemingly random mix of English and German signs displayed at different times), but these issues could have been overcome by a really effective storyline. Unfortunately, though, The Bunker just doesn't deliver the goods in the end. It's a good try, though, and is certainly worth watching by anyone with an interest in psychological horror.

We are on the German/Belgian border in 1944 and a group of German soldiers are holed up in a bunker trying to survive. But just as they find a tunnel system underneath the bunker, and the enemies outside are closing in, they suspect that something very sinister is down there with them......

One of the most frustrating British films I have watched in a very long time. You see there is a real great movie at its core, one that is desperately trying to get out, but instead of a top notch eerie thriller we get something that looks like a chopped together homage to John Carpenter. Definite shades of Carpenter's chiller, The Fog, and Russell Currie's great and creepy score sounding suspiciously like a reworking of Morricone's scoring for The Thing. The production is not helped by using an array of non German actors for this German soldier based picture. Much as i like Jason Flemying and Christopher Fairbank {my reasons for watching this film}, it's a bit of a stretch to accept them as German soldiers.

With a better director than Rob Green at the helm, Clive Dawson's story could have been fully realised as a serious and dramatic horror film. Instead the end product comes off as something that was too big a task to handle, and sadly the nicely tuned atmosphere is lost amongst the insipid and unimaginative cop out that the film invariably is. 3/10

And so the cross pollination of movie genres continues apace with yet another entry into the war/horror subgenre (as if war in and of itself is not horrific enough) in the shape of the Bunker, a film that mines a similar vein to the likes of R Point or Michael Mann's The Keep.
It is 1944, and the allies have landed at Normandy, with the German army in full retreat. Along the French/Dutch border, a group of seven German soldiers, desperately trying to elude an unseen enemy (the Americans maybe?), happen across a bunker manned by two fellow soldiers, an old man, and a young lad. Taking refuge in the bunker, the tensions of the group and their situation soon begin to take its toll on all concerned as guilt, fear and recriminations abound. On top of all this, the bunker hides a secret, as we are soon informed that the something is lurking in tunnels below the bunker, something not altogether human. That the bunker is built on the sight of a medieval massacre only serves to unsettle things even more. Pretty soon, the enemy outside is forgotten as the enemy within begins to make its presence felt.
A cast of familiar faces (including Charley Boorman, Jack Davenport, Andrew Tiernan and Jason Fleyming as Cpl Baumann, the closest thing to a hero this film has) make a good go of the material, and director Rob Green handles the mounting tension between the soldiers with an initial deft hand, leaving things unseen and unsaid that only serve to build the tension, but unfortunately after such a promising start, the film falls down somewhat in the closing stages, as a combination of madness, duty and loyalty take their toll on the men, and a guilty secret that may well be the real source of all the horror is revealed. Unfortunately, it feels as if we have been watching a puzzle for the preceding two thirds of the movie, and suddenly we are confronted with the fact that some of the pieces are missing. Several plot points are either forgotten about or discarded altogether in the final half hour, and the film seems to fizzle out as a result. Plenty of potential then, but ultimately fails to make a coherant whole.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly atmospheric
To be honest, initially I couldn't distinguish most characters from each other but I was hoping they would survive. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Bakuryuu Tyranno

3.0 out of 5 stars Four star film with a two star ending
I wish I could give this film four stars because it does have a lot going for it. The dialogue in the screenplay is strong with a sense of some past event weighing on the... Read more

Published 18 months ago by S. Haddow

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing fantastic, but certainly watchable
An interesting little film, which was made down to a very limited budget with creeky sets and an assortment of Brit actors who have no doubt been seen on soaps on TV. Read more

Published 21 months ago by A customer

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall not a bad popcorn one off watch of a film.
With a lot of spooky films they start off very good and intriguing then fall apart in the second half. Read more

Published on 1 July 2009 by Hagrid's Umbrella

3.0 out of 5 stars Rent it or watch it when it's on TV..not one for the collection though
Having read the other reviews on here, I find myself agreeing with part of most of them. On the whole, I enjoyed the film when I saw it on TV. Read more

Published on 3 Jun 2007 by AndyB

1.0 out of 5 stars Save you dosh!
Sometimes when I see a films ratings I think others have perhaps watched a different title to the one I have seen. This film is one of those. Read more

Published on 1 April 2007 by Inmi Opinion

3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly Disapointing
This film is based on a great concept, but left me feeling slightly disappointed. It is similar in a way to Michael Mann's "The Keep", but not quite as well executed. Read more

Published on 18 April 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A thinking horror
Taglines for movies are often superflous or just plain cheezy - take the otherwise superb film "American Beauty" with its inadequate "look closer". Read more

Published on 6 Mar 2003 by Adam Bartleby

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