Burial

The tagline "attacked by nazi werewolves" is extremely misleading. The term is also used for nazis behind enemy lines fighting guerrilla style. There are no supernatural elements in this movie. As soon as I figured that out I turned it off.

I can't tell if this is a purposeful misdirection or just sloppy marketing. It definitely does not belong in the horror category, which also adds to the 'werewolf' misdirection.

The problem is I am sure this is a pretty decent movie. From what I saw everything looked well done and well acted. The story itself seemed interesting enough, it's just when I turned the movie on I wanted a werewolf movie.

Starring Tom Felton: that was enough to raise red flags, but I was willing to give the film a chance -- after all, surely a WWII film with werewolves can't be all bad. Sadly, despite the film premiering at London's FrightFest, Burial isn't a horror film at all: the werewolves in question aren't of the hairy, fanged, supernatural kind, but are instead German resistance fighters (known as Werwolf). This is a war film, and a bloody boring one at that.

The film opens as a man breaks into the home of an old woman, a Russian soldier during WWII, looking to learn about her secret wartime mission. The old woman tasers the intruder, handcuffs him to a radiator, drugs him, and recounts her tale about how she was tasked with transporting Hitler's body back to Stalin in Moscow...

Writer/director Ben Parker seems to be under the illusion that he is saying something profound about the nature of evil, directing with all seriousness, despite the hilarity that ensues from the terrible script and even worse performances. Not one of the actors playing Russians attempt an accent: most sound like they're from London, although I did detect an Irish accent at one point; meanwhile, the Germans are played by Estonians, as if vaguely European would do the trick.

The dull as ditchwater WWII scenes see the Russians encountering the Werwolf, who have been ordered to retrieve Hitler's body; the fighting that ensues is tedious and difficult to follow (especially when you're fighting the urge to take a nap). Felton plays Lukasz, a Polish man of German heritage who helps the Russians to evade capture, and proves to be an even worse actor than Daniel Radcliffe. Hitler's dead body gives the best performance.

About the only positive thing I can say about Burial is that it guaranteed that the next two films of the day would be more enjoyable.

For a low-budget movie Burial is ok. There's is one good scene in the forest that shows that the director has potential.

But really annoying is how the different languages of the charakters are managed:

The Russians and the Germans speak English among each other, but sometimes they speak Russian or German what really makes no sense in this context.

If the director wants to know how this is done, he should watch Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

Actually I was hoping for something interesting to happen at the end, but there's no twist or revelation.

The visual effects are good, especially the scenes of Berlin in ruines at the beginning of the movie.

The actors perfom well, I think I never saw any of them in a movie before.

The movie should only be watched when I do not find a better movie, but it should be easy to find a better movie.

This is a tense film detailing a Soviet group who are transporting back a coffin to Stalin at the end if the European side of WWII. In Poland, they are attacked by Nazis and have to fight their way for survival. There isn't anything supernatural as a main plotting in this film, but there are a couple moments that suggest something eerie is occurring. Don't expect more than a flash or two on this front. Still works simply from the force of the female lead as she pushes through the chaos around her as she desires to complete her mission. Overall, interesting film but some confusion given similar appearance of actors. Still worth a watch.

It was on Shudder, which is a horror channel, so I watched it. I thought it was very good, especially for a lower-budget film. The acting was great, the concept was interesting, and it was certainly a thriller with a good plot. No doubt.

It was not, however, a horror movie. Thrills? Yes. Horror? No. There was also nothing supernatural in it.

I mean, when the title talks about Wehrwolves, and yes, I know who they were, you are expecting, I dunno, a werewolf or two? Nope. Nothing supernatural.

I supposed war itself is horror, yes. But it's basically a war film with an interesting premise, some good characters, some good action, and some thrills. As a film, it is good.