The Bunker

I heard about THE BUNKER as soon as it came out ( Being a British movie it would have received far more publicity here than it did in America ) and it seemed to split the critics right down the middle . Some people thought it was a great and atmospheric horror movie while others thought it was a confused cross genre story . Some critics thought it was a good idea to let the cast talk in their native accents while others were puzzled why a bunch of British soldiers are wearing German uniforms fighting against the Americans !

I don't have any problems with the British accents and idioms such as pronouncing the rank of Leutnant as " Left-ten-ant " but I do have a problem trying to identify with the characters . They're Germans from the mid 1940s , they're " the enemy " and even though they're doing a soldier's duty the audience can't think of them as anything but bad guys . It's the same with the very similar THE KEEP where the audience wonder who they're supposed to be rooting for . Perhaps if the characters were Volkstrum protecting Germany from the Red Army this aspect could have worked better but as it stands it's difficult to feel sorry for the characters . Incidentally aren't the surnames Franke and Engels of Jewish descent ?

Ironically enough while watching this I found myself often wishing that this was either a straightforward horror film or a straightforward war film . The early action scenes are very well directed by Rob Green while the scenes set in the dark catacombs are certainly atmospheric but it's the revelation at the end that you suddenly realise that THE BUNKER is neither a war film nor horror film but a ghost story mixed in with a redemption plot and its at this point you are allowed to decide if the film is successful or not and I'm afraid that it failed for me , an interesting failure but still a failure . Some people have complained it would have been better if the soldiers had faced zombies or something more horrific and I agree . Certainly it would have made for a more ridiculous less thoughtful film but would also have made for a more memorable and entertaining 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.

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

This movie is one I'd recommend to anyone. Even though the character development is slow, the acting is wonderful. It is so seldom to see a movie which focusses on the "other side" such as Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. We are so used to looking at them as the enemy, its somewhat refreshing to see the enemy footsoldier's P.O.V. Looking toward U.S. soldiers as the horrific enemy, showing how their troops feared American troops is interesting.

Granted this movie could have been shot better, I am satisfied with its quality. This is a British Independent Film, so I was not expecting brilliant acting or amazing special effects. I was however, surprised with the outcome.

While the movie fails to produce a real "scare factor" quality, it does provide an adequate thriller/mystery feel, and I enjoyed it.

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.