The Depraved

A group of people take in an underground tour of the tunnels beneath Berlin. All is going relatively well until their fairly enigmatic guide suffers an unfortunate accident. If being lost in these deep, dark, endless maze of tunnels weren't bad enough, they also happen upon a deranged nut-case/former border guard.

I thought I was in for yet another low-budget, badly acted horror flick of little real value, but as the movie wore on, I found, much to my surprise, it to be fairly well done. Highly derivative, but well done nonetheless. I actually found myself caring if these characters survived or not, no small feat as most of these type of films have such one-dimensional cardboard characters that I usually can't be bothered. Which I guess is also true here to some extent, but I was drawn into the story regardless.

Just the typical low iq friends who get chased by some psycho. Lot of reactions are just completely ridiculous, from the main characters but also from people around them. I guess it's fine if you're looking for a netflix and chill movie but want to focus on the chill part.

My opinion on this movie is kind a selective. Good thing about it is superb directing, scary camera and very good acting. It is as good as in the best horror movies of that kind. So most of the conditions to make a good movie were fulfilled. Still, from my point of view movie is not good for its great downfalls. The greatest one is a pretty bad script full of holes. I am not going to go step by step in naming these holes as I don't wanna spoil your fun. Scenario is also very dry, there are some scary moments mostly due to the clever camera, but the plot is kind of sterile and uniformed. This is because the movie is not involving us on the basis of the clever plot composition, but on the separate scary events. I also found insisting on grouse effects pretty unnecessary. I love European horror movies and among them German very much, but this one looks more like a B class Hollywood movie pattern.

I think this could have been an engaging flick. It has some good character development and an interesting premise. The acting is acceptable, and the filming/directing is solid. With that said, this movie does suffer an identity crisis – even the title shows the problems in the movie. The Depraved – Urban Explorer says it all. The movie is not really either, but a poor cross of both. This is not the traditional slasher, gore fest circa Hostel or Turistas. Nor is it an adventure film with Nazis and underworld crime, rather it is a blend that does not succeed in either genre.

The movie starts as a group of tourists is lead into an underground tunnel system under Berlin. There are plenty of interesting red herrings, and exciting action as they descend deeper and deeper under the city. This goes on successfully for nearly 2/3s of the movie, and I was engaged enough that I forgot that something 'depraved' was going to happen. It does, and when it does it is pretty lame.

The movie then turns into a cliché horror with all the classic conventions – girl getting tortured, cell phones dying at the right (wrong) time, the 'is he dead?' bad guy. However, there is nothing overly interesting or unique about the depraved or the situation. I kept wishing they would get back to the interesting tunnel system to explore.

As in all slasher movies, the ending is underwhelming, but by then I had pretty much tuned out. This movie could have been pretty entertaining, and starts off enjoyable, but can't decide what it wants to be. I would have been happy with just the Urban, keep the Depraved to yourself.

This movie deserves much more then a 5.2 rating on IMDb. I'm not saying that you will get great dialogs or deep conversations and that's not the point. This is a horror/thriller and so you don't need that. The only thing you need with a horror/thriller is suspense, creepy background sounds, a nasty villain, a lot of screaming and blood. And all that you will get with this movie. The actors were not bad at all, especially the German subterranean psycho played by Klaus Stiglmeier. You will need subtitles for this movie because at the end there is quite a lot of German language. I thought the underground sceneries were perfect for this movie so that you would get the feeling that there is no escape from that weirdo. Great entertainment if you like that kind of movies. Certainly much better then the usual stuff we get in that genre.