The Bunker Game

To me this movie seemed like part thriller, part tragedy tinged with scifi, and part something else, but I'm not sure what. I'm even not sure I get the whole thing, but I think what makes it worthwhile is the set, which is amazing and kept me watching, and the actors being top notch along with some interesting dialogue and the generally high quality production... everything very well done. It also felt a bit profound, as if wholly allegory, but went so many directions I can't say what the message was. Recommended if you don't mind wondering wtf a few times without always getting an answer.

(No spoiler)The movie has SOME redeeming qualities. The beginning is semi interesting? Makes you wonder what will happen next, but that quickly devolves. It has so many weird, unnecessary plot points. The pacing is super bizarre. Each character makes you feel like they were going for a different movie with each of them.

In the end the movie got to be so boring and drawn out I would fast forward through some of the more pointless scenes. There's a weird nude scene, just because I guess? Lot of scenes that were, "meant" to add to the ambience or suspense and manages to do neither.

For the story itself it's just bad. There's no other way around it. The movie doesn't know what it's trying to say, because it ends up saying a lot of nothing. The individual stories feel super bland and pointless, while the main plot somehow manages to be worse?

It boils down to creepy horror movie trope executed HORRIBLY to the point where the movie was somehow creepier before you got to the tropey horror execution.

Then it tells you nazis are bad, and that incels are also bad. While this is true. It offers nothing extra to say for either of these.

The point they try to make about female autonomy was also done poorly in my opinion. They make the main character brave and independent, which is good. They, however undo a lot of this by making her personality revolve around a guy and having a kid.

I can't really give an honest review of the substance of the story as it moves rather slowly and struggled to hold my attention.

I do enjoy a good slow burn (You Should Have Left comes to mind - slow burn, great camerawork and the story keeps a good pace) but this one was just sort of stuck in second gear in my opinion.

I did find the camerawork, lighting and scenery quite enjoyable and that held my attention.

It's worth a watch if you can set aside the slow story and enjoy it on perhaps a more visceral level.

The Bunker Game (2022) follows a group of people running a larping event in an underground bunker, when mysterious things keep happening, they decide to stop the event and investigate. This film had a very unique premise but it was just completely boring and lacked substance or any originality. I felt nothing after watching it, which is always a bad sign for me.

There were some decent colour palettes, but other than this, the cinematography was very mediocre. The focus shifts weren't well done and looked way too odd, and the flashing lights used were super annoying and distracting. However, to my surprise, the final shots were absolutely gorgeous. The end shots showed that the filmmakers had the ability so make something visually beautiful, it's just a shame they didn't utilise this until the last minute.

The score was definitely lacking, and I just felt like the sound design as a whole was missing something. I expected a film like this to have effective sound design in order to build up tension, but unfortunately it didn't.

The acting was decent, but this inevitably didn't matter as the characters were poorly written and had a serious lack of depth. Also, some scenes were very dialogue heavy which was a bad thing due to the dialogue dragged a lot.

The movie started off a bit messy, and took way too long to get going. There wasn't any tension built up, and I was over half way in when things started to happen. The pacing was very consistent with a lack of atmosphere, and the whole movie just felt incredibly bland.

Just watched The Bunker Game on Shudder. Best not to read the synopsis, as I expect many folks went in not knowing much. Almost anything I say will be a spoiler. Trailer sort of gives you a hint, but I liked the twist.

Only a few likable characters, with a creepy subplot that might really bother some folks. There is Nazi imagery, I can say that much. First ten minutes set things up then you begin to understand, as things go wrong. Slow burn with things growing weirder. Odd ending you can take a couple of ways.

I gave it three out of five 💀 on the app.