The Bunker (2001)

In 1944, in the Belgian – German border, seven German soldiers survive an American attack in the front and lock themselves in a bunker to protect the position. Under siege by the enemy and with little ammunition, they decide to explore underground tunnels to seek supplies and find an escape route. While in the tunnel, weird things happen with the group.

I have recently seen the South Korean movie "R-Point" (2004), which efficiently explores the idea of "The Bunker" – scary and ambiguous journey to hell of the innermost fear of a group of soldiers, in an intelligent screenplay. Now I find that "The Bunker" is a 2001 movie, which has the originally of the concept, but unfortunately the confused screenplay does not work well. The acting is good, but the development of the plot could be better and better. For those viewers that also find that something is missing in the story, I strongly suggest seeing "R-Point" for comparison of what "The Bunker" could have been with some improvements. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "The Bunker – Em Guerra Contra o Medo" ("The Bunker – In War against the Fear")

Fmovies: Extremely boring war movie that tries to establishes a link with terror/horror theme but fails miserably in all the points. So, the movie is a completely failures as a war movie and as a terror/horror flick. The 'Bunker' has a simple plot, in fact. A group of German soldiers enter a bunker to escape an attack of Allied soldiers. In the bunker, they find an old private and a young soldier. There's an atmosphere of mystery all around. The old man is a bit out of mind and very frightened and the young soldier is mesmerized by the tales and weird stories always repeated by the old man about strange facts concerning the bunker. But you'll never know what is the real problem. But you'll have many options: ghosts? zombies? witches? Although all the cards put on the table, the game never ended because here's no satisfactory and reasonable answer at the end. The cast is correct with Jason Flemyng - here the most recognizable actor in the bunch - and Eddie Marsan who did a good job as the old private.

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 .

The Bunker fmovies. First off, "The Bunker" is not your normal monster/horror movie. The cover art on the box is great, it's a real attention getter but unfortunately misleads the viewer about the content of the film. The Bunker is about a group of Germans during WWII in an anti tank bunker connected to underground tunnels. The movie does not show any monsters or zombies. The soldiers go through a psychological breakdown as different events happen to them. The fears they face may be real, supernatural, or entirely in their own minds. It's up to the viewer to decide. If you're looking for a monster movie, I would not choose "The Bunker". It's more of a psychological thriller. What I really liked about the film was the whole sense of fear and the great eerie atmosphere within the bunker. The acting as well as the directing was very good. The characters and dialogue were done well. As always there will be some that don't like the fact that the Germans all had British accents. If it were an American film they would have American accents. You could say the same if it were Italian, French etc, big deal, so what! To be completely authentic they would have to speak German. Forget about the accents, it's' trivial. What ever you do if you watch this movie is pay attention. It's all in the details. You don't want to miss a moment. You could easily get lost and confused. I personally didn't care that much for the plot. Someone else may. That's all opinion. It sure was interesting though. It certainly is a film I don't think I'll forget.

An atmospheric thriller that works right up to when everything is revealed. When the film maintains its balance of "is it ghosts or is it paranoia?" the movie works. The claustrophic confines are used well, and the film is a fast mover. It's a slick thriller, with a terrific class, and I for one am I glad that a movie has stopped trying to convince us its actors, despite speaking all English, are "foreign" by using some fake foreign accent. Why does Harrison Ford, when he's speaking completely in English, using a "Russian" accent in "K19"? Beats me. It doesn't make sense, especially when we KNOW they're supposed to be speaking in their character's native tongue. We GET IT. There's no need to make your actors do dumb fakey accents.

I've started to watch this on a few different occasions, but for whatever reason I've never gotten the whole way through. Until tonight that is, and I wish I hadn't put it off so long! Though it moves at a very slow pace, it's worth it in the end. There are some very tense and creepy scenes, especially once the soldiers begin to lose their grip on sanity near the end of the film. I do have some gripes with the movie however. First off, I cant quite fathom why a battalion of German soldiers all has British accents. Sure, the actors were good and everything, but you think they would have at least tried to sound German, eh? That aside however, this is a surprisingly tense and atmospheric horror film. Any worries that I may have had about Rob Green directing the Dog Soldiers sequel are officially washed away.

7.5/10