Urban Explorer

Just the typical low iq friends who get chased by some psycho. Lot of reactions are just completely ridiculous, from the main characters but also from people around them. I guess it's fine if you're looking for a netflix and chill movie but want to focus on the chill part.

This movie deserves much more then a 5.2 rating on IMDb. I'm not saying that you will get great dialogs or deep conversations and that's not the point. This is a horror/thriller and so you don't need that. The only thing you need with a horror/thriller is suspense, creepy background sounds, a nasty villain, a lot of screaming and blood. And all that you will get with this movie. The actors were not bad at all, especially the German subterranean psycho played by Klaus Stiglmeier. You will need subtitles for this movie because at the end there is quite a lot of German language. I thought the underground sceneries were perfect for this movie so that you would get the feeling that there is no escape from that weirdo. Great entertainment if you like that kind of movies. Certainly much better then the usual stuff we get in that genre.

Berlin has many abandoned underground places. Kris leads two couples on a spooky tour. The three groups have never met each other before. Marie and Juna are friends. Lucia and Denis are a couple. They encounter dangerous men and dangerous situations.

This German English film is also known as Urban Explorer. This has a nice setup for a small indie horror. I'm ready to go on a tour, but problematic writing starts infiltrating the movie. As soon as the group gets confronted by the thugs, any sane person would leave the tour. Instead of thugs, the group should be trapped somehow underground. They should definitely stay together. That is probably the movie's biggest sin. It tries to build up some chemistry within the group and promptly breaks it apart. Maybe if they're not strangers, the separation would mean something. The movie falters and falls apart in the second half.

If all you want is a spooky movie with monsters and atmospheric settings, this is as good as any. If you expect anything like a logical story, well, maybe not so good. The film depends on a common misconception; every big city has endless tunnels beneath and they are all connected as well as lost and forgotten. And this is nonsense. Unlike Paris which has quarries beneath it, most cities do not have anything like a connected maze of tunnels. And most tunnels, even abandoned subway stations, are used for something and are well documented.

This film, like others of its type, substitutes basements or even abandoned factories with their windows covered for underground areas. One look at the brickwork of these phony tunnels is enough to reveal the sets are ordinary locations dressed as spooky tunnels. The huge size of many of the locations should tip off the viewer that they are seeing nothing more mysterious than an old warehouse.

And our explorers are totally unprepared for their adventure. The have no hardhats, no first aid kit, no proper clothing, nothing but a few dinky flashlights. If not for their "guide" somehow toting 5 sets of rubber waders in his tiny backpack they would never have made it through a flooded tunnel. We are further told that scrawny teens can climb 50 feet, hand over hand, on a thin rope. And thats up and down. Small wonder the actual climbing is not shown! And of course the abandoned tunnels are full of improbable characters who survive on.....what....rats? If you like to suspend your disbelief totally, you will probably enjoy this film. But if, like me, obvious plot holes spoil the experience you may wish you watched something else.

I had the chance to watch this movie at the Fantasia festival in Montreal and it blew me away. Urban Explorers biggest let down came in the introduction and story telling that up to a certain point it followed a bit too closely the usual scary movie blueprint down to the usual characters archetype (the cool guy, the wannabe hero, the scared girl, etc.).

I said up to a certain point because the movie really start to shine once the exploration truly begins. I was sucked in the gritty atmosphere created by the amazing locations Urban Explorer was filmed in enhance by the actors who manage to really make you feel uncomfortable.

All in all this movie is going into my library once released as a must see for fan of the genre.