War…what is it good for….well making movies about, that’s what. After Rob Green’s atmospheric foray into supernatural forces infiltrating the ranks of a wayward British WWII Troop in ‘The Bunker’, a year later we get a catchier title but essentially the same film complete with lost soldiers, unexplained encounters and paranoid delusions leading to much death and destruction. Welcome to The Bunk……errr sorry Deathwatch.
Rushing head on towards the German lines, a group of British WWI soldiers meet with heavy resistance including a gas attack that send the men’s minds into a confused state and causes them to wander into the dense fog until sunrise. After discovering a German bunker which is home to just a small group of frightened troops, the tired British soldiers are ordered to hold the bunker until reinforcements arrive. After a scout of the trenches which intertwine like a maze of muddy scars in the landscape they find hundreds of rotting corpses, all German and some looking as though they were attacked by fellow comrades. As their stay progresses each man is faced with unexplainable circumstances that lead them to the brink of madness and beyond.
The premise behind Deathwatch is indeed a stellar idea, exploiting the horrors of war and heightening the already terrifying situation by adding supernatural forces that play with the minds of the stressed and ragged troops. I was under the impression that, as this idea had already been put into place by the 2001 film ‘The Bunker’, that Writer/Director Michael J. Bassett might kick off his theatrical career by replacing the supernatural element with a more tangible creature which stalks the trenches in search of it’s victims. Unfortunately this is not the case and, whilst a physical horror does exist up to a point, it still uses the minds of the characters as a vehicle for the horror and leaves the viewer feeling a little left out of the on screen action
On the casting front, Jamie Bell might very well be a strong lead in a film that focuses on the subject of coming-of-age as was the case in ‘Billy Elliot’, but when you have already come of age and are thrown in with solid actors like Hugo Speer and Andy Serkis, your inexperience tends to ooze from every poor and, believe me, Bell perspires greatly here. Serkis must have loved every moment of his evil Private Quinn character as he brutally broods, beats and bullies his way through to the movies climaxing scenes. Holding a large spiked club and donning a grey rugged fury jacket he looks every part primitive Neanderthal at comfort with the chaos around him.
The muddy sets with their almost continuous precipitation are an excellent part of the essential atmosphere required for an effective horror yarn and for a first time effort, Bassett has conjured up a reasonable effective production from a technical stand point. The story is the weakest part with several question marks being unnecessarily left hanging above the viewers head and never really gets out of first gear before the whole thing ends before it delivers the crucial sucker punch.
