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Deathwatch (2002)

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

The haunted house structure - unseen forces and trapped folk picked off in baroque ways - is transposed to a trench on the Western Front. This adds new ingredients to the mix, self-satisfied rats and rank mud. Moreover, when the bedraggled band of British soldiers (including Bell, Rhys and Serkis) stumbles upon it, the trench is full of mangled bodies which they take to be the remains of German soldiers. This scene highlights a problem: combine a conventional horror movie with 'the horrors of war', and it's hard for supernatural unpleasantness to hold its own against man-made evils. The setting is also limiting on a visual level, the action adrift in mile upon mile of muddy ditches. Writer/director Bassett makes the most of a tight budget with a few nasty surprises, but the film chiefly relies on an overworked smoke machine permanently set at 'spooky evil mist'.

Author: WI

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

ed said...

Posted on Apr 26 2011 13:32 No suspense and the lack of a cohesive plot. This was just a pale re-run of Alien (minus a physical assailant). It could have been so much more. Good actors wasted.

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Andy S said...

Posted on Dec 09 2009 08:08 Watched this on Film Four yesterday...very well shot, very spooky and dark. Jamie Bell is actually brilliant, as are most of the cast, but Andy Serkis hams it up too much as a total psycho in a silly role which is out of context with the time. Might have worked better with characters that were more likable...but the ending is nicely handled. Worth a look.

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