The Bunker

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

I'd heard very good things about 'The Bunker', and the idea of combining war and horror is potentially very rich, so I was really looking forward to watching it. I kept an open mind as it began, but after about 25 minutes in this movie started to fall apart, and by the three quarter mark I was yawning... I didn't mind that the cast playing German soldiers all spoke in British accents, that wasn't a problem, but the characters were so sketchy I had difficulty telling them apart. Also if any kind of who's-gonna-die-next? story is to succeed you must CARE about the fate of the characters, and 'The Bunker' never managed to do that. I couldn't care less what happened to any of them. BIG PROBLEM. On top of that I didn't think there was any real suspense generated and the climax was a let down. Many people who seem to know their stuff love 'The Bunker', but in all honesty I can't agree. A very disappointing movie.

After watching the disappointing Deathwatch, another British-made horror film set during war-time (this time the WWI trenches), I was hoping that The Bunker would prove a better option. Unfortunately, The Bunker falls into the same trap as Deathwatch, in that they're both over-long, characterless and (most heinous crime for a movie) boring.

There is an effectively creepy atmosphere built up during the first half-hour, but this evaporates into the standard horror cliché - creeping up and down poorly-lit corridors - and with such poorly sketched characters, that it generates very little tension.

Towards the end there is an effectively-eerie looking scene where the main characters' hallucinations take on the shape of zombie troops. And there's a vague parallel drawn between the actions of the bunker's supernatural spirits and the Nazis themselves, but it is framed in such a woolly manner that it's almost entirely lost in the mire of mediocrity.

In 1944, in the Belgian – German border, seven German soldiers survive an American attack in the front and lock themselves in a bunker to protect the position. Under siege by the enemy and with little ammunition, they decide to explore underground tunnels to seek supplies and find an escape route. While in the tunnel, weird things happen with the group.

I have recently seen the South Korean movie "R-Point" (2004), which efficiently explores the idea of "The Bunker" – scary and ambiguous journey to hell of the innermost fear of a group of soldiers, in an intelligent screenplay. Now I find that "The Bunker" is a 2001 movie, which has the originally of the concept, but unfortunately the confused screenplay does not work well. The acting is good, but the development of the plot could be better and better. For those viewers that also find that something is missing in the story, I strongly suggest seeing "R-Point" for comparison of what "The Bunker" could have been with some improvements. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "The Bunker – Em Guerra Contra o Medo" ("The Bunker – In War against the Fear")

yes. part of me desperately wanted a monster to come flying out of the woodwork, all teeth and claws and shredding horror. but in the end, what i got was an intriguing psychological horror film about the madness of humanity and the splits that occur both in social groups and in the mental structure of individuals. the first 65 minutes are a fairly hard slug, i didnt think it would make it at first. there was just too much build up for them ever to be able to actually pull it off. but they did, and how did they do it? understatment, simplicity. some people here have stated they were confused. yes it is somewhat confusing, there are some plots points that are a little fuzzy which dont help, but for the most part, the confusion comes from the very fact that the characters themselves are confused. the audidence isnt allowed to sit comfortably on the sidelines and get away without thinking about what is going on. there is an awful lot left unsaid in the film which is implied. and in the end it all boils down into a destruction of the most horrifying and realistic type. most people wont care for it. most people wont get it. but for those who do, they will remember this film, for managing to get under their skins and do something original with a worn out plot.