Truly Dreadful Film

Powerful

Absolutely the worst movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Neil Marshall's THE DESCENT was a fine stab at a survival horror yarn, featuring some excellent locations (those dank and dismal caves were a perfect backdrop for the scares) and a race of nasty villains who seemed to be descended from Gollum. UNDERGROUND is a cheap and nasty American version of the above, with the setting swapped to an underground military bunker.Unfortunately, UNDERGROUND has much in common with modern-day B-movies as it's the kind of film you watch and mildly enjoy in places, but soon forget about once the credits roll. The script and production values of this film are poor, with much of the running time consisting of too much repetitive wandering around in semi-darkness. Needless to say the characters are bland and undistinguished, with nobody to root for.The monsters in the film are passable, and I enjoyed the couple of fight scenes that we get here and there (the choreography isn't too shabby). As with many B-movies, the gore content is ramped up to compensate for failings elsewhere, and there are a couple of great gags involving eyeball violence and a twist on the old "ripped in half" joke. Sadly, the film as a whole is just too dark and bland to be worth watching, though.

I went into this one completely blind - without viewing the trailer or reading a synopsis; that was a good thing. The first few scenes cry "Facility Shooter" with depictions of a heavily armed military squad entering an underground structure to engage some kind of genetic experiment gone haywire. When done properly - as in this film - a true fan of science fiction/horror requires little more to wet his appetite. We fast forward a couple of years and the script introduces us to a pair of Marine Corps buddies just back from a combat tour, a lifelong buddy of one of them and, two girls he apparently grew up with. The final of the main characters is also a Marine - I presume. She is introduced as a doctor the Caucasian Marine met while in theater. Just after the friends' reunion at a crowded rave held on an old military base is completed, one of the Marines gets into a brawl with a gangbanger, swiftly incapacitates his foe and wins the wrath of the rest of the banger's crew. I enjoyed this scene as, it is far too often in horror or thriller genre films these days that male leads and supporting protagonists are portrayed as wimps. The two Marine buddies put up an impressive fight against multiple gang members until the bad guys rally their numbers and pull out the guns. Our party of heroes and supporting cast make a run for it and manage to shut out their pursuers on the other side of a steel door, but at the cost of finding themselves locked in and trapped deeper inside the facility. Yes, it is the same facility from the beginning of the movie, and thus begins the horror and campy sci-fi as the premise runs its course. As a rabid horror and science fiction fan, I thoroughly enjoy the concept of forgotten or decommissioned unconventional military weaponry locked away in some claustrophobic underground bunker just waiting for a trespassing civilian to unleash. Hence the premise of 'Underground' and in my opinion, a premise rich with possibility. As the aforementioned premise is explored by the quite capable cinematography, script and acting, we get to know our characters and I for one, began to care about them even though a few of them are immediately snatched away from us. The story unfolding as I had expected, I really began to wish these two Marines had decided on different way, or rather place, to celebrate their return from the war. Once again, if you are a fan of the combination of horror, science fiction and thriller with some action added for spice, you will definitely appreciate where 'Underground' is coming from and where it takes you. As do many other films of the genre, 'Underground' asks you "What if?" "What if you unexpectedly found yourself trapped a few stories below ground, pursued by a lethal opposing force?" "What would you do different?" I love it. Opens the mind and makes one think and experience fear right along with the characters on screen. Some have complained about the lighting in this film. I suspect they must have watched bad internet versions, as the lighting on the Blue Ray is just adequate enough to thoroughly reveal the goings on - start to finish. Special effects are great. A minimum of GGI was used, thus younger viewers may not appreciate the skill of the effects crew as much as one such as myself who grew up before the computer generated film effects revolution. Overall, 'Underground' is a highly entertaining entry in the horror and science fiction hybrid genre. It is a film that will most appeal to serious fans of said genre, but should be well enough received by most any horror fan. I wholeheartedly recommend this film and subtract two stars only for the use of young people in yet another desperate survival situation. However, I give one star back for the inclusion of combat veterans as the two main characters, and the obvious use of an effective military adviser by the writer/director. If you get a chance check this one out.

This is kind of a strange film...well done in certain parts and really poorly done in others. The acting was fine 90% of the time but you get the sense that some footage was filmed in a rush not allowing the actors to portray fitting emotion in some scenes.The special effects were great, but the editing was a little sloppy in some scenes I couldn't follow what was happening, I remember on a few occasions losing the actors positions due to either the editing or filming of the footage. There were some lighting and sound issues too, I had to keep turning the brightness and sound up and down to see and hear what was going on, it was a bit amateur home video.The first few minutes of the film had some really cheesy unbelievable dialogue which unfortunately there are more cheesy lines to follow.Something went wrong with this movie you can tell, some scenes are perfect, some are a terrible car crash...cash flow?, time limitations?, poor decisions? take a guess.

After a fight gets out of hand a group of friends run for cover but find themselves fighting for their lives against ravenous creatures lurking beneath their rave party.Over dramatic, low budget horror flick that has some fantastic makeup and special effects in amongst the unnecessary fights,hammy dialogue and slow motion scenes.Underground starts off very promising with the opening of an army squad fending off some nasty looking super genetic humanoids, then director Rafael Eisenman introduces us to an underground rave in an air hanger on a military base that goes on far too long. Writer Charles Morris Jr. borrows heavily from Marshall's Descent (2005) and Smith's Creep (2004). Underground's weakest link is that it's not very tight and scenes are drawn out. It's well lit and shot with some good pumping tracks in the soundtrack.The score is a mixed bag there's some great music cues but then it borrows from familiar scores and overcooks them. The young cast of actors including Eric Abercrombie and Mira Antonova do there best with the script. The Eli Wallach with a German accent lookalike aside - there's some nice touches, a creature bursting out of urinal, torn off ears, lobbed off arms, spooky tunnels and creepy corridors.A lot of effort has clearly gone into Underground, it has a 'film' look and with some tighter editing it may have helped the viewing experience. Rafael Eisenman uses every film trick in the book and clearly has ability but it just isn't a polished enough production, nevertheless it's a lot bloodier, effective and atmospheric than the abundance of cheap looking horror DTV films.Despite it's unevenness there's worst ways to burn a hour and a half.