Being off work for a week, I decided that every day I would watch a different horror film for review. Browsing Shudder, I came across the Grégory Beghin directed French horror film Bunker 717 (also known as Deep Fear), and with it having a picture of a Nazi zombie thought I would check it out. It turns out that title picture was a little misleading, as was the title as a whole (the Bunker 717 one). The titular place doesn't turn up until forty five minutes into this eighty minute movie, and I'm not entirely sure the zombie from the cover picture was actually a zombie. Thankfully, once I had gotten over my disappointment, I found this to be a great little horror.
This takes place in Paris in 1991, and Henry (Victor Meutelet) is due to report for mandatory military service. Wanting to give him a good send off, his best friends, Sonia (Sofia Lesaffre) and Max (Kassim Meesters) arrange with a shady friend of Sonia's, Ramy (Joseph Olivennes) to have a private and illegal tour of the catacombs below Paris, something to remember. After encountering rats, skinheads, and flooded corridors, the group get completely lost, and eventually end up inadvertently at a newly discovered entrance to a part of the underground that hasn't yet been explored by the collective of people Ramy lives with. Promising to lead the friends back to the surface after having a quick look at the new area, Ramy heads inside, which turns out to be the worst mistake in a long series of bad moves.
Underground horror films fit into a tidy little subgenre of their own, in terms of setting this must closely resembles both The Tunnel, After..., and As Above, So Below, the later being most in tune with this as they are both set in the exact same location, albeit different areas. Unlike that one, and despite one of the protagonists carrying a bulky handcam, this wasn't a found footage, outside of a couple of moments that are shown from a first person perspective. It also shares a wonderfully atmospheric location, with set design that never looked anything other than claustrophobic. The group squeeze through very narrow looking passages in a few scenes, never failing to look far far too narrow, with the cast often starting to panic at how tight it all is. I had expected lots of Nazi zombies, I blame the cover image used, as that was a bit misleading. It may well a spoiler me even mentioning that, but then there is the short prologue that takes place two years prior to the events of the main plot, in which someone is dragged screaming away off screen by an unseen antagonist, so something is certainly down there.
Much of the horror comes from the friends being trapped underground, they go through plenty of maze like sewers, caves, and stone quarries. I'm not particularly claustrophobic, but watching this I was again reminded of my pledge to never go the catacombs under Paris in real life! Adding in a gang of roving skinheads was a great idea, as this gave a very real danger to the group, that the gigantic, yet ultimately passive catacombs couldn't provide on their own. The protagonists were not the most exciting of characters, yet the actors were good in their roles, they felt like long time friends, and there were subtle hints of subplots that never actually got addressed. While this was in French, the English subtitles were always well written, so I didn't feel anything was lost in that respect. The special effects were sparse, but led to some fun looking moments for the hapless heroes. It did take a heck of a long time to get to that titular bunker though, and the last twenty minutes were perhaps the most exciting to be found, but almost felt like a different move entirely. It leads up to a wonderfully bleak finish, and the most darkly comedic moment of the film a few minutes before that.
I spent the majority of Bunker 717 waiting for the (alleged) zombie to appear, I wasn't impatient, but with the dwindling run time I was confused as to when this would all kick off. In hindsight, the journey was better than the eventual destination, as there was a lot that happens, even if the core plot was a bit light. The catacombs of Paris as depicted in the movie were full of atmosphere and horror, and it was a nice touch that the end credits play over a series of photos from the real world inspiration, for there is indeed a Nazi bunker under the streets of Paris. Bunker 717 can currently be streamed on Shudder.
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