BUNKER
Year: 2001
UK: Salvation Films
Cast: Charley Boorman, John Carlisle, Jack Davenport, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Flemyng, Simon Kunz, Nicholas Hamnett, Andrew Lee-Potts, Eddie Marsan, Andrew Tiernan
Director: Rob Green
Country: USA
UK: 91 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong violence and horror
UK Release Date: 27 September 2002
Synopsis
Germany, 1944: The forests of the Ardennes.
A platoon of battle weary German soldiers are forced into confusion and retreat by advancing Allied forces, taking refuge in an isolated Siegfried Line bunker. As night falls and a rainstorm begins to blow, the exhausted soldiers huddle in the concrete shelter trapped by the advancing GIs.
Tension and dissent are already straining the integrity of the unit. Corporal Baumann (Jason Flemyng) is the object of scorn and vilification from CO, Lieutenant Krupp (Simon Kunz), and from the fiercely patriotic Lance Corporal Schenke (Andrew Tiernan). Private 1st Class Kreuzmann (Eddie Marsan) is suffering from shell shock, whilst Private 1st Class Franke (Charley Boorman), Lance Corporal Ebert (Jack Davenport) and Sergeant Heydrich (Christopher Fairbank), each with their own individual concerns, are caught in the middle.
With all this unfolding it seems each one of them harbours a dreadful secret from their recent past which begins to manifest itself through un-explainable circumstances upon discovering a huge, complex, underground labyrinth of tunnels deep below the bunker. One by one each soldier is subjected to psychical and mental torment as paranoia and claustrophobia sets in whilst struggling to understand their predicament.
Many questions remain unanswered. What is in the tunnels and why are they there? But perhaps maybe even more importantly... what is outside?
An eerie noir thriller in the classic tradition of Val Lewton's psychological horror films of the 1940s, relying on character, mood and inference, rather than the contemporary trend of graphic violence. A chilling metaphorical tale which combines the best elements of Sam Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON and Robert Wise's THE HAUNTING.
