New Review: The Tunnel

This peculiar subgenre of found footage films, really kicked off with the supremely creepy The Blair Witch Project, and popularized later with the Paranormal Activity films, seems to have replaced zombie movies as the go-to for folks looking to make a splash in the horror scene.  Unfortunately, that water seems more and more shallow these days.

Despite being a found footage film at heart, The Tunnel, the latest entry into this subgenre, wraps a documentary vibe around the shaky-cam madness, reminiscent of the far spookier Lake Mungo.  Under the guise of a movie chronicling the events of a journalistic team investigating a potential government cover-up, The Tunnel introduces us to the ambitious Natasha (Bel Delia), who is having a hard time making a name for herself at a new television station.  Her producer, Pete (Andy Rodoreda), is yanked off a story that would send him and his creative team, soundman Tangles (Luke Arnold) and cameraman Steve (Steve Davis), to China in lieu of reporting the drippy, dank, less China-like underground realm.

It appears as if New South Wales, in the midst of a water shortage, may have found a solution to their problems in the form of underground lakes in abandoned train tunnels.  The media covers the possible solution with great fanfare until, mysteriously, the government stops talking about it.  Then, rumors emerge of homeless people using the tunnels for shelter going missing, and, you know, that's never a good thing.  Natasha ambushes the Minister of Water or something, who declines to comment and, when she calls an old friend for a permit to explore the tunnels, she gets further stonewalled.  So, what does she do?  Sneaks into the tunnels with her producer and crew, of course!

When they go deep down, Steve explains in a post-tunnel interview that he filmed everything because he didn't want to be blamed if they were caught and arrested.  Good enough.  And, in the dark, the camera lights become even more useful.  So, the cameras do make some sort of sense here, but one wishes they would do something more fun with this setup.  Make the cameras more a part of the story.  But, you get the idea: cameras, tunnels, something eating homeless people (the official GOP line on the homeless, by the way), film crew in the dark banging off walls and yelling.

There's some more subtle work than usual regarding a possible relationship between Pete and Natasha, as well as some nice work by Steve Davis who really sells his part, but all the actors are good enough to create the illusion of reality more often than not.  The real drag of The Tunnel is that it doesn't do anything new or bold with the format, and plays like a watered-down version of better films, with fewer chills and the fleeting moments of monstrosities are dim and unsatisfying.  Couple that with a repetitive score, uninspired set-ups and a resolution that doesn't shed light on anything we didn't already know and you have a slightly sub-par to average film with little to recommend it.

One note on the movie - the distribution of the film has been a favorite story of mine, with the producers agreeing to release the movie as a torrent along with the DVD release.  Additionally, individual frames of the film are being sold to support the effort.  While I can't recommend the movie, I hope that this distribution model proves profitable.  I love the democratization of art, and the more filmmakers who can put together an indie project with the release being immediately available to anyone with a computer and the profits determined by viewer response... well, that seems okay by me.  I'd still rather throw this movie a few bucks (which I did and you should, too, here) than support another Pirates sequel or Final Destination iteration.