The Bunker 2001

Let's face it, the Germans may have lost World War II, but they did claim one major victory - no-one could touch them in the fashion stakes. The German uniforms, with their grey and black colour schemes, shiny jackboots and excellent caps, just looked so much cooler than anything the British designers could muster up, with your average Tommy being sent into battle wearing a shit-coloured uniform, trousers tucked into their socks, and helmets which made them look like they were trying to balance a plate on their head. I've always imagined that the Paras were all there on D-Day arguing with their commanding officers - "Sarge, let me keep my red beret on. I'm happy to risk getting shot in the head if it means I don't have to look like one of the support acts at the London Palladium."
Proof (if any were needed) lies in a very simple fact - in the 60s and 70s, the German Stormtrooper outfit was the best-selling uniform for the young boy's toy of choice, Action Man. And I can still remember seeing the look on my grandfather's face when he found out he'd risked life and limb parachuting into Arnhem so that his ungrateful litle sod of a grandson could choose to dress his arian-looking blonde Action Man in the uniform of the army he'd been happily machine-gunning 30 years previously.
Because of the sartorial blitzkreig served up by Hitler's hordes between 1939 and 1944, and the overwhelming Hollywood evidence of just how cool those uniforms were (encapsulated by Clint Eastwood being given the excuse to play an American but wear a German uniform in the wonderful Where Eagles Dare), it's a given that if any actor, American or British, is given the chance to play a German on screen they'll jump at the chance. The casting sessions for The Bunker probably went something like this:
Director: "Jack, we've got an idea for a new film. You'd play a German soldier -"
Jack Davenport: "I'll do it!"
Director: "But we haven't told you what kind of film -"
Jack Davenport: "Don't care. Where do I sign?"
(Davenport leaves, smiling. Jason Flemyng walks in)
Director: "Jason, how would you like to play a German soldier in my -"
Jason Flemyng: "Where do I sign?"
Director: "But don't you want to know what your fee is?"
Jason Flemyng: "Nope, just let me wear my cap at a jaunty angle!"
(Flemyng leaves, a faraway look in his eye)
Director: "This is easy!"
Casting director: "Fuck! I told you we should have gone for Jude Law and Daniel Craig!"
Buuut, anyway. It's June, 1944. The Allies have swept back into Europe and the German Army is in retreat. At the German - Belgian border, a group of German soldiers are being relentlessly pursued through a forest by the enemy. They come across a fortified bunker which is being kept at just-about operational level by an old man and a young boy, and after forcing their way in decide to make a last stand against their unseen foe. The problem is, there's a fair-to-middling chance that they might have stepped out of the frying pan (which admittedly was rather warm) into the rather spooky fire. The viewer has already been treated to a little introduction which saw the former residents of the bunker get badly spooked by something and run away, and when the boy suggests that one of their options for escape might be the underground tunnels beneath their feet, the old man looks horror-struck.
"They closed the site because they didn't like it in there. No-one likes it in there. People round here have... unpleasant stories about this place."
"Ghost stories," adds the boy, just to hammer the point home.
The old man then tells an interminable tale of how at some point in the past, the plague came to a nearby village. The villagers chased out all those who had contracted it, and killed them, burying them in a pit on this spot.
But it's not just the area which has a troubled history. As the new arrivals (including Jack "Coupling" Davenport, Jason "Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels" Flemyng, Christopher "Moxey out of Auf Weidersehn Pet" Fairbanks and assorted familiar faces from British drama) try to settle in as best they can, it's obvious that they have brought a bit of baggage with them (not including the Allied forces which keep pinging bullets off the concrete walls). The obligatory psychotic one, Schenk (Andrew Tiernan) is still seething after failing to get into the SS, and the group appears to have been involved in some kind of atrocity (shown in shaky flashbacks filmed in hyper-real, jarring colours).
The group decides to take a look at the tunnels, ghosts or no ghosts, but as they make their way into the darkness, strange things start to happen. One of them (Davenport) is stabbed to death by an unseen assailant, another goes insane. The old man explains that "there is something about these tunnels - they make you see things. Do things."
As the paranoia amongst the group starts to take hold, they begin to turn on each other, until there are only two left. The ammo is gone and the Allies are closing in - there's only one way out, into the tunnels. But what will they find there?
The Bunker is a remarkably effective exercise in building tension, which uses every trick in the book (the early killing of the supposed "hero", strange tales of past misdeeds, a claustrophobic setting, even the "loud banging on the door" scene from The Haunting) to ratchet up the sense of dread without very much happening at all. It is laudable that the makers had the courage to make such an old fashioned ghost story in today's cinematic climate of dopey blood-soaked teen shockers, and typical that the morons who enjoy blood-soaked teen shockers stayed away in their droves.
If you are looking for an old-fashioned horror film "like they used to make", but with a thoroughly modern look and feel (we get Saving Private Ryan style zips and pangs when the shooting starts, and 28 Days Later style digital camerawork for the flashbacks), then The Bunker is ideal. And yes, they do all look cool in their German uniforms.

Last updated: October 7, 2007