Reviewed By
Vaughan

Analysis
Apart from a short film entitled 'The Trick', you could say that Director Rob Green has well and truly cut his teeth with this wartime horror yarn. The story follows a group of german soldiers as they flee an encounter with American troops in the thick woodland of Belgium. As the casualties mount and their numbers dwindle they stumble across a bunker which they enter to seek refuge from the onslaught. However, their sanity is torn apart when they discover a series of old tunnels beneath the bunker that seem to be home to some supernatural entities.

I must start my analysis on a negative note. When you have a film about german solider's it is imperative that you make the production as authentic as possible. I don't mean going the whole hog and putting the damn thing in subtitles but for christ's sake at least give the cast a few lessens in 'german speak' to ensure that they talk with the correct accent. These boys sound like they have just stepped out of the halls of Eaton boys school with their bold british enunciation. I don't know if this was an over site but it is something that should not have been left unchecked. Thankfully though, after about 10 minutes the accents are generally forgotten about once the film starts to reveal it's secrets.

As far as the movie proper goes, it does a sound job at building a great atmosphere with scenes of paranoia and mistrust amongst the men that culminate in often violent confrontations. A moral undertone becomes the focus during these moments of high tension with serene cut scenes that unravel the meaning behind the men's ghostly visions. The method used for these cut sequences is made effective by the contrasting brightness that accompanies them along with the deadening of any ambient sound which allows the view to focus more intently on the visuals giving them a greater impact. The cast is made up of some top notch British talent and together they portray the downtrodden troops excellently with a combination of mental instability and nerve jangling mistrust.

Key Area	Rating (out of 5)	Comment
Action		Plenty of gun fire and the odd fiery explosion inject a little pace into the preceding's.
Tension		The atmosphere is the key element to this films credibility. Without tension and atmosphere this would have been just another weird and cheap stab at horror entertainment. The characters dispositions break down slowly at first but disintegrate when the men start to face down their demons.
Violence/ Gore		Not as violent as it could or perhaps should have been, but this is supposed to be more about tension than shocks.
Bare Flesh	None	Nope, not in this bunker.
Plot		Interesting enough idea that never tries to tax the viewers brains too much but some thought has to go into the relationship between the soldiers visions and their previous misdemeanors. It could also leave some unsure about just what had really occurred once the movie had ended which is not a great conclusion in my eyes.

Verdict This film is more about the limits some soldiers will go to when instructed to undertake a crime against humanity and about how these same men react to the stress of living with these past moral sins. It is not an all out horror in the traditional sense as very few horrific scenes are included but it does make for tense viewing.

Movie Pictures (Click picture to enlarge)