Deep Fear

When I started thinking "okay, this is getting interesting," I noticed that there was only 15 minutes of the film left. There are a couple of other scenes that are cool, but overall it was a poorly paced execution. The sets and effects when the film gets to the catacombs are done well and give a sense of both depth and claustrophobia.

DEEP FEAR is a claustrophobic chiller that takes us beneath the streets of Paris. This isn't the usual catacombs movie, it takes us into an unexplored -except by taggers- region. As in other such films, there are ample opportunities for the young explorers to be threatened, terrified, and given a lesson in extreme caving along the way.

Some of the ultra-tight squeezes are reminiscent of movies like THE DESCENT, with some similar dangers.

One strength is that the aforementioned youths are not presented as annoying jerks, out to make a mockery of everything. In fact, they're all pretty serious. This makes it all the more effective when they finally reach their destination, and the true horror begins.

A gory, increasingly intense creeper with a perfectly grim finale...

This chatty French horror film has similarities with 2014's 'Up Above, So Below'. I found that film's success surprising for such a lacklustre production, so my enthusiasm for 'Bunker 717' (sometimes known as 'Deep Fear') was muted. The results here are pretty good.

Three students decide to celebrate their graduation by exploring the catacombs underneath Paris. They appear to be followed down there by a couple of skinhead ne'er do wells.

Things start off slowly and it's a pity some of the time wasn't spent allowing us to get to know the characters better; they are all fairly likeable, but sketchy. The main antagonist, who is impressive but used very sparingly, would also have benefited from some semblance of a backstory.

This is low-key, but mainly fun. The claustrophobic setting is well conveyed and there's a real sense of 'things lurking in the shadows'. This, and a convincing level of gore, coupled with an effective ending, makes for a fairly effective 80 minutes. My score is 6 out of 10.

How not to think about those two features. THE DESCENT, one of the most claustrophobic horror films ever made, that makes any audiences dizzy, disturbed, and CATACOMBS, a small horror film released in 2014, made by an American or British director, speaking of the same topic. It's actually a pretty good horror movie, well done, directed and shamefully never released in theaters. Good acting, convicing young actors. Nothing really new though, with an expected ending for this kind of movie.

After finishing their schooling, a group of friends decides to spend the occasion exploring the catacombs beneath the streets of Paris, but once they realize that their trip has caused them to stumble into an underground Nazi bunker haunted by an undead soldier they have to get out alive.

Overall, this was a decent enough if somewhat problematic outing. As expected, one of the better parts of this one concerns the atmosphere of the underground catacombs which is put to great effect throughout here. The darkness and twisting labyrinth of tunnels underneath the city, heading off into the distance led by failing or even non-existent lighting enhances the long-abandoned feel established throughout here. Combined with the severe state of decay featured in the numerous bunkers and catacombs they stumble into before getting to the main Nazi compound, there's quite an effectively chilling state featured here. As well, the film manages quite effectively to bring about a really interesting finale where they finally realize what they're up against and need to find a way out. With the series of adventures causing them to get stuck and needing a secondary escape route, the means through which they enter the fateful bunker and encounter the mysterious being living there which is wisely kept off-screen for a longer amount of time than expected while still generating some brutal encounters. This leads to a great conclusion here with the surviving members and the undead officer engaging in some spirited encounters that are quite fun, giving this some likable qualities. There are some problems with this one that holds it back. One of the biggest issues is the rather bland running time that takes quite a while before it gets going or provides anything of interest for genre fans. The first half of this one runs through the usual character-building setups and introductions which is all well enough but it then goes through a series of additional meet-ups with the other underground dwellers and their plight with the skinheads that serves no reason for being here other than wasting time. This ends up causing the film to get to the halfway point before any kind of genre activity happens and leaves this feeling quite padded and drab. That also ends up applying to the main villain as well which is a direct result of this one taking so long to get through the other factors here. With the amount of time this spends on the group getting to know each other, meeting their guide and his friends, and the unnecessary exploits traveling through the underground catacombs, there's no time at all to really dive into who he is or what's he's doing in the bunker. Even managing to provide basic information like how he survived undetected for so long and so close to the others is a complete mystery with as much time as this did to build him up, making for the biggest drawbacks to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.