Bunkers best quality is the idea of the film.
The characters are paper thin and pretty much fall into the tropes that you’d imagine in a film like this and refuse to elaborate further. The film sometimes seems to know how absurd the acting is, it’s almost aiming for a purposefully camp and B movie charm, but most of the performances don’t match the energy of Patrick Moltane, who, either way, gives an awful performance that is the only thing in this film that even tries intentionally or not.
The limited locations shouldn’t be a problem; in fact, the passing of time could make it an incredibly effective claustrophobic thriller, but they don’t properly show how long it’s been, so there’s no good sense of how long they actually have left. Nor do they use time in a way that drains you as you wonder if it’s been days or hours; it’s just brought up here and there like that’s enough.
The acting is bad enough that by less than the halfway point, you hate all the characters and want them to die so the film can end, but this is also largely due to the lack of any effort of trying to make connections with the characters. They also manage to squander what should be a very cool location with very limited use of the trenches and then a bunker that doesn’t have a layout you can follow, so there’s no sense of how big it is or how deep they really are. It just becomes a barrage of brown walls and flat lighting that quickly gets old. There’s no sense of how hot or cold it’s getting down there.I know this is likely a cause of the small budget of the film, but I’ve seen films do a lot more with a lot less. There is some okay makeup and props towards the latter of the film and some almost stop-motion-esque moments that are okay.
Bunkers best quality is the idea of the film.
The characters are paper thin and pretty much fall into the tropes that you’d imagine in a film like this and refuse to elaborate further. The film sometimes seems to know how absurd the acting is, it’s almost aiming for a purposefully camp and B movie charm, but most of the performances don’t match the energy of Patrick Moltane, who, either way, gives an awful performance that is the only thing in this film that even tries intentionally or not.
The limited locations shouldn’t be a problem; in fact, the passing of time could make it an incredibly effective claustrophobic thriller, but they don’t properly show how long it’s been, so there’s no good sense of how long they actually have left. Nor do they use time in a way that drains you as you wonder if it’s been days or hours; it’s just brought up here and there like that’s enough.
The acting is bad enough that by less than the halfway point, you hate all the characters and want them to die so the film can end, but this is also largely due to the lack of any effort of trying to make connections with the characters. They also manage to squander what should be a very cool location with very limited use of the trenches and then a bunker that doesn’t have a layout you can follow, so there’s no sense of how big it is or how deep they really are. It just becomes a barrage of brown walls and flat lighting that quickly gets old. There’s no sense of how hot or cold it’s getting down there.I know this is likely a cause of the small budget of the film, but I’ve seen films do a lot more with a lot less. There is some okay makeup and props towards the latter of the film and some almost stop-motion-esque moments that are okay.
