Subterano

In a future society apparently ruled by virtual games, Conrad (Alex Dimitriades), the leader of a revolutionary group called "The Orphans of the Revolution", escapes from the guards when he was going to be executed, and with the support of his girlfriend Grace Stone (Tasma Walton), he goes to the last level of a parking garage trying to escape to a sanctuary. However, the garage is shutdown by a crazy teenager that has developed a new version of a deadly game called Subterano, and Conrad and Grace, with four teenagers, a security guard and an elder accountant have to play the game and fight to survive.

What a crap is the screenplay of this low-budget movie! Indeed it is a silly game, with no development of the characters, the place and time, and even their motives, being a complete mess. The imbecile writer uses a shallow situation, indeed a rip-off of "Logan's Run"and "The Running Man", and a director uses some computer effects and makes this movie. The good point is the beautiful unknown actress Tasma Walton, who has a good performance. In the end, if the viewer shuts-down his or her brain, it may be a watchable movie for killing time only. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Subterrâneo" (Ünderground")

True, the special effects are a little lame in this low budget Australian movie, and the location for most of the action -- a parking garage -- is pretty cheap.

But, darn it. I was entertained.

One thing, though: This could be a good children's movie if all the four-letter words were removed.

Eleven people are trapped in an underground parking lot, where they must battle their way through it against lethal toys in a real-life virtual-reality game. I rented "Subterano" for no reason in particular, having never read anything about it but passing it hundreds of times on the video store shelf (Lets just say I have a lot of free time on my hands), but upon checking IMDb after renting it I found predominately poor reviews. Perhaps it was because I didn't expect much, I thoroughly enjoyed "Subterano". It may owe one-too-many nods to 1997's brilliant "Cube", and the futuristic clothing may be pretty silly, but there's plenty to like here.

For a low-budget movie, writer/director Esben Storm has done a great job with the film visually. Despite being filmed almost exclusively in a parking lot, the lighting is interesting and attractive (Lots of filters are used in this film to good effect) and there's enough tense action that thing never get boring.

The acting is surprisingly good for the most part, John Clayton and Alex Dimitriades being the best here. Everyone else is good too, but some of the characters could be rather annoying at times (The baby-faced teen girl being a prime example).

The special effects are good. Most direct-to-video films resort to cartoony and unconvincing CG, but here the computer effects are actually quite good, and there are some fun, gruesome death scenes (I'm not going to give them away) here and there. Thankfully, the gore isn't CG.

It's not a perfect film by any means, the script can be thin in places and the music is terrible at times, but "Subterano" was a fun, fast-paced sci-fi thriller that's certainly a stones-throw ahead of the brainless, CGI-laden "sci-fi" films produced by Hollywood these days. Give it a chance and you might like it.

6.5/10.

In Australia, a majority of films have to go through the Australian Film Finance Corporation before production. That usually means that Aussie flicks are underfunded, and Subterano is no exception. I tried to like this film. As an Aussie, I felt that I had a duty to like this film. But I couldn't. The script is terrible, the plot is unsuspenseful and you could really care less about the characters.

Sci-fi wise, Australia has had some success with 'Escape from Jupiter'. That was a children's TV series practically unheard of outside of Australia. And, in reality, Subterano is nothing more than an overbaked form of that, with little in the way of budget and creativity. Avoid this film at all costs. I remember saying that this is, without a doubt, proof that Australia should stay away from science fiction cinema. And I stand by that.

Subterano (2003) is an Australian movie that I recently found on Tubi. The storyline follows eleven strangers who find themselves randomly in a car garage. They don't know how they got there but as they start investigating their surroundings they discover robots, creatures and people from the future that wants to kill them. Is there any hope for escape and getting back home?

This movie is written and directed by Esben Storm (Deadly) and stars Alex Dimitriades (Ghost Ship), Tasma Walton (Mystery Road), Alison Whyte (Satisfaction), Janet Edwards (Smokin Aces) and Jason Stojanovski (Beat).

This movie is wild and I couldn't tell if it was purposely trying to be a "so bad it's good" project or not. The action sequences are very uneven as are the kill scenes. There's a couple scenes that made me smile, but for the most part there's nothing special here. Some of the costumes and technology depictions were cool and the ID opening was hilarious. The aciting was very mediocre and the villain at the end was awful and entertaining at the same time.

Overall, this is a bad movie that I'd recommend skipping. I'd score this a 3/10.