The Tunnel (2011)

An investigation into a government cover-up leads to a network of abandoned train tunnels deep beneath the heart of Sydney. As a journalist and her crew hunt for the story it quickly becomes clear the story is hunting them.

I went into this film knowing next to nothing about it. All I knew was that is was released online to download for free and was an Australian found footage film. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw and I think the less you know about the film the better.

I’ll keep it as spoiler free as possible to begin with. The basic premise revolves around the governments sudden u-turn in a plan to use the underground train tunnels to utilise the water. An investigative journalist named Natasha decides something is not quite right and decides to take matters into her own hands. So she leads a team down into the underground labyrinth determined to get a story. The film mixes the found footage from the expedition with interviews with the survivors.

It starts off quite slow and we get to meet the crew. If you’re not into the whole found footage/shaky camera work then this film may not be for you. However, if you can look past that and enjoyed similar styled films such as Blair Witch and The Descent then there is a good story to be found. The crew are a likeable group and I was genuinely interested in what their investigation would uncover. We are told that the tunnels are rumoured to be full of homeless people. We even see an interview with one former resident who was very frightened when discussing what he saw during his time living in the tunnel.

Once down in the tunnel the drama starts to unfold and mysterious things happen. Strange noises, objects moving, and eventually members of the crew start to disappear. The claustrophobic location and the fast movements of the hand-held cameras really works well here. Like any good horror movie, we don’t see who or what is stalking the crew until pretty near the end, and even afterwards it is all very ambiguous as to what actually happened. The director did a great job of only showing us a glimpse of what was stalking them, basically you see some bright eyes, but a little more back story to what it actually was would of been nice. They are doing a sequel to this movie so maybe we will get more of an explanation.

It’s hard to go into any more detail really without ruining the film. It isn’t particularly graphic or violent, there is a bit of blood shown but the main horror is of the unknown and the claustrophobic surroundings whilst being hunted. The main negatives for me were that by having a film with a survivors interview narrative running alongside the actual found footage, it ruins the suspense of who actually dies and makes it out alive. The film leaves lots of unanswered questions and has a few plot holes, but overall I’m glad I’ve seen it, and I look forward to the bigger budgeted sequel which I hope goes some way to rectifying some of the questions from this film. It was a good solid effort and I like the fact it was partly funded by fans who were offered the chance to buy a digital frame of the film.

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I actually reviewed this back in June when I first started the blog, and only 2 people read it. Since they both commented, I felt it was a shame to lose their comments, and have copied and pasted them here. Mainly because I’m grateful they took the time to stop by at the very beginning, and shows just how long Eric from The IPC has supporting me. Cheers buddy!! 🙂

1. subtitledhell

   I read your review & it peaked my curiosity so I sat down & watched The Tunnel. Your review sums the movie up well. A few too many unanswered questions to my mind but a reasonable horror film & one of the better found footage movies. My biggest complaint was while the interviews with the survivors worked well it also took away any real feeling of peril for the group as you knew who survived & who didn’t. Thanks for the recommendation.

   • Tysoncarter

     Yeah for me that was the main downfall, be interesting to see what route they take with a follow up film, hopefully they lose the interview narrative. I really set up the blog to try and get people to watch films they may not normally hear about so I’m very grateful you took the time and watched this. It makes it all worth while!! Im hoping to find new films from blogs like yours!

     • subtitledhell
       

       I think that is the real joy of blogs like these, finding new movies that you wouldn’t normally hear about. I will certainly give the sequel to The Tunnel a watch. It will be interesting to see how the filmmakers approach it.

     • Tysoncarter

       Exactly, already got a few new films from peoples blogs to search out. Wish I had started this a lot earlier! With Tunnel 2, I know the basic plot is for one of the ‘missing’ peoples sister to go back down the tunnels hunting for answers. Bigger budget, properly financed this time so fingers crossed it turns out ok.
2. theipc

   I thought this was one of the better “found footage” gimmicks out there… this and Lake Mungo. Nice write up!

   • Tysoncarter

     Cheers! Nice to see another person who has actually caught this film. I haven’t seen Lake Mungo yet, heard about it so will try hunt a copy down.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on December 6, 2012

https://headinavice.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/the-tunnel-2011/