I love a good war movie. I equally love a good horror movie. Unfortunately, Bunker was neither.
I understand that not every movie can have a $100 million budget, but the low production values of this film just hamstring it from the start.
This premise DOES have potential. But it needs a MUCH bigger budget to be fully realized.
This is, at best, a made for TV production. I'm thinking SyFy, where quantity seems to be preferred over quality.
Just a few of the many glaring issues:
The monster/entity is in absolutely no way frightening, regardless of the efforts by cast and crew. And its "horrifying" appearance in the finale was a guy in a rubber monster suit.
A lieutenant giving orders to a captain? I have to admit I lost interest very early on (so maybe there was some explanation for it, or perhaps I misconstrued the conversation),but I just couldn't wrap my head around this. And I swear the captain had corporal's stripes.
The small company was able to cross "no-man's land" in about 30 seconds crawling on their bellies. They arrived at the other side with barely a speck of dirt on their nicely pressed uniforms. Have you ever seen photos of "no-man's land" in WWI? It's hundreds of yards of mud, blood and barbed wire. Surely it wouldn't have cost that much to smear some mud on the uniforms.
A captured German played by an Australian actor. Again, I get the budget issue. But his German "accent" was about the most horrific thing in the film. Couldn't you have hired an English-speaking German actor who would have had a credible accent?
There are lots of issues, and I really feel like this started out with a great premise that was slowly eroded by the lack of funds available to realize the vision. The production values are low, the plot and writing seem lazy and uninspired. I originally thought the acting was bad, but in retrospect I really think it was more a case of the actors trying to work with poor material and dealing with poor direction.
I was honestly looking at my watch only 10 minutes into the film. And as a theater employee, I was able to see the film for free. But I still feel like I was overcharged.
Plot summary
Trapped in a bunker during World War I, a group of soldiers are faced with an ungodly presence that slowly turns them against each other.
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A SyFy Movie brought to the big screen
Low Budget Bore
Usually low budget horror movies tend to be the better ones because of their creativity and creepy tone. Take your pick: Evil Dead (1981),night of the living dead (1968),Elm St (1984),and even last year's Barbarian. These movies rely of a setting, decent cast, creepy music, and some kind of scary reveal. Bunker has potential but bombs.
I thought maybe the slow pace was equal to a slow burn that pays off in the end. This is like watching a bad M. Night Shamalan movie. No pay off and just a plain dumb ending, especially when the monster is revealed. The audience I saw this with laughed at the ending and you just might too when you see what I'm talking about.
Disappointing because the setting could have worked. WW1 soldiers hide in bunker behind enemy lines during war. Their lives at stake causes them to duck into the bunker unaware there's something very spooky in their. That's all I'm gonna say in case you're still curious. I'll admit the first act did draw my attention but then after that I got so bored at one point I thought about walking out. As for the big reveal, well when you see it you may feel cheated.
You could wait for Redbox or Netflix on this one. Save the $11 ticket fee and get a pizza instead.
Low Budget WW 1 Horror
I saw Bunker, starring Eddie Ramos-Animal kingdom_tv, Incorporated_tv; Julian Feder-The Doorman, A Boy Called Po; Luke Baines-Shadowhunters_tv, Saving Mr. Banks and Patrick Moltane-his first movie.
This is a low budget WW1 horror movie. Some English soldiers-along with a couple of Yanks-take over a German bunker during an advancement through German territory. Patrick is the LT in charge. Eddie is the medic and one of the Yanks, along with Julian as the other. After getting trapped inside the bunker-bombs outside bury the door-they discover Luke, a German soldier, chained up inside and staked to a wall with knives through his hands to hold him. After releasing Luke and putting him to work, they try to dig their way out and soon discover that there is something mysterious going on. Some of them start going stir crazy-acting weird and such-and an unknown white fluid starts to drip from the ceiling. Why was Luke tied up? Was he a deserter or was there another reason? And what's with the white fluid? Answers are forthcoming and if you know much about the horror stories about the German's experiments during the war, you might have an idea about what is going on.
It's rated R for violence, gore and language and has a running time of 1 hour & 48 minutes.
I don't know if I would buy it on DVD but it would be alright to stream.