DEATHWATCH

Year: 2002
UK: Pathe Distribution
Cast: Jamie Bell, Hugo Speer, Matthew Rhys, Laurence Fox, Hugh O'Conor, Andy Serkis, Dean Lennox Kelly, Hans Matheson, James McAvoy, Ruaidhri Conroy, Torben Liebrecht, Kris Marshall
Director: Michael J Bassett
Countries: UK / Germany
UK: 94 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language, violence and horror
UK Release Date: 6 December 2002


Synopsis

1915. The Western Front. One million or more Allied and German troops face each other across the scarred, cratered plains of northern Europe, thick with mud and blood, the air suffocatingly thick with the stench of death and gas. Hundreds of thousands of men are already buried in this terrible wasteland yet hundreds and thousands more will die here before the senseless slaughter ends.

It is here that one young man, just 16 must face his deepest fear, that he will die a coward. Private Charles Shakespeare (Jamie Bell) is convulsed with terror - death all about him. He and his last few men of Y Company are utterly lost, sheltering in a German trench, a claustrophobic maze infested with rats. They are exhausted and terrified waiting to be rescued.

But who will rescue them? One by one the young men of Y Company begin to die - so what is his horror that they face? In this cursed, lonely place, Private Charles Shakespeare must overcome a terror greater even than his own deepest fear, a terror beyond human understanding.

They soon discover is that they aren't alone...and it isn't a German soldier that's hunting them down. Driven to the edge by the atmosphere of death and the phantoms they sense around them they turn on each other. Only Shakespeare, the youngest company member, can see that they are being given choices that could lead to their survival or demise...

Private Quinn (Serkis), the unhinged, trophy-hunting dog of war, heads off into the depths of the trench to confront the potential horror. Keeping morale up are the caring 'Doc' Fairweather (Matthew Rhys, Abduction Club), and the worldy-wise Sergeant Tate (Hugo Spears, The Full Monty). Stiff-upper lipped Captain Jennings (Fox, The Hole) stirs up angry feelings, and well-meaning trainee- priest Private Bradford (Hugh O'Conor, My Left Foot, Chocolat) renounces his faith when the pure evil in the trench enters his soul.

What is this horror they face? Is the soil possessed by something even more terrible than the war that surrounds them, something ancient and unholy? Have centuries of bloodshed infected the very earth? Is the trench itself alive???

DVD EXTRAS

Feature running time: 91 minutes
Language: English
Subtitles: Hard of Hearing English
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (16x9)
Sound Quality: 5.1

Special Features
Director Michael J. Bassett, Jamie Bell and Laurence Fox commentary.
Andy Serkis commentary
Michael J. Bassett technical commentary
Making of featurette
Deleted and Alternate Scenes
Interviews
Behind the Scenes
Theatrical Trailer

VHS EXTRAS

Making of Featurette