The Tunnel: Carlo Ledesma

I seriously don't know where to being with this film. It fails on every single level imaginable. The only reason why anybody is going to remember this film is because of its revolutionary marketing techniques. The film was simultaneously released in theaters, television, DVD, and the Internet via Bittorrent. Now, on paper, this is a fantastic idea. Instead of shunning internet piracy, this low budget film embraced it, thereby ensuring that millions of people would see it despite its virtually nonexistent theatrical release. The problem is that this film is absolutely abysmal. At its center, it wants to be a found footage horror film like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. It follows an investigative reporter as she travels inside the abandoned train tunnels beneath Sydney, Australia. The tunnels are scheduled to become part of a new reservoir project wherein they would be flooded. The problem is that the tunnels are supposedly inhabited by untold numbers of homeless people. The government adamantly insists that the homeless have been removed, but a random youtube (what else?) video reveals that there may be people still living there. So, an intrepid reporter goes to get the real story in the tunnels. And, wouldn't you know it, they find that they AREN'T abandoned! Here's where this movie falls apart. The horror is supposed to come from the camera crew being picked off one by one by this unseen killer. But the film features two of the crew members NARRATING the footage. This spoils the horror because we know that they survive! Also, when will filmmakers learn that you can't use orchestra stings in found footage movies?! But the big, game-ending problem that this film faces is that NOTHING HAPPENS. In good found footage films, there is an overarching story that is gradually revealed. In The Tunnel, we get all of the plot in the first 30 minutes. The rest of the film is comprised of the camera crew running from the killer through the tunnels. Just running. There's NO character development and NO story progression. It's just a long, nauseating sequence of people running and screaming and dropping the cameras. It gets old really fast. The Tunnel is a horrific mess. It isn't scary, it isn't suspenseful, it fails as a found footage movie, and it fails as a piece of cinema in general.

2/10