Written by Enzo Tedeschi & Julian Harvey
Directed by Carlo Ledesma
I grabbed this movie through VoDo.net's promotion, where they are giving it away via legal torrent. They ask that if you like the movie, you make a donation, buy the DVD, or at the very least, tell someone about the movie. This is the second part of a funding scheme that I help will continue to change how movies are released. From the outset, the producers of The Tunnel (the Movie part is added to differentiate from another title) started funding by selling individual frames of the movie for $1 each. Not a bad investment, to own a few frames of a feature film, especially if you can spend $30 and own a second of the film. I'm not sure exactly how many frames they shot, but theoretically, for less than $30 you could own a second of the 90 minute film. Not bad.
Reports are that this wasn't quite as successful as the producers hoped, netting only $36,000 (not a number to be scoffed at, however) of their $135,000 total budget. Instead of paying to go through a big company like Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon, they have chosen to give the film away themselves, trusting that the film will find an audience, and the audience will gladly pay to find the movie if they like it. What too many filmmakers believe is that EVERYONE wants to see their movie, but some will steal it because they don't want to pay. These filmmakers are hoping everyone is wrong. I hope so too.
With all that said about the production of it, I suppose it might spoil it for some to learn this is a found footage film. The genre is take it or leave it, either you're intrigued, or you think they all look the same. There is no middle ground, and in the evolution of current cinema, found footage is just the first major mini-genre in what is already known as meta filmmaking. If you don't like found footage as a concept, well, you probably shouldn't bother with any films in the genre.
So from the underground of Australia, comes a found footage film that ultimately suffers because it's so ingrained in the genre of found footage, and does not apologize for doing so. The tapes are presented as having happened the year before, captured by a team of journalists that went off on their own to find the answers to Sidney's water shortages, and why a plan to build pumps underneath the city has seemingly been abandoned.
The film intercuts between security cam footage, the clean, lit camera of the team's camera man, and later, a handheld digital video camera in nightvision mode. Amongst all of this, there are interviews with the "survivors". It's a slightly different take on the found footage "something is chasing us" film, but upfront, learning who survives kind of takes some of the fun out of it. While it's still fun to watch everyone slowly disappear, it's like they're admitting it's a movie, which of course it is, but the point of found footage is supposed to be the coy mystery that it could have been real.
Otherwise, all the found footage conventions are here, a group of journalists decides to take a story into their own hands, they go underground, get lost, and pretty soon they learn they aren't alone. What they did the best was to put the confrontations between "them out there" and the main characters, people sometimes just disappear from a corner, but more often than not, it's worked out to where they are holding the camera during their confrontation, which is another cool aspect that happens too rarely in found footage films.
Despite my belief in the method of distribution and funding, I can't lie and say I love this movie. For fans of found footage, it's a good time, a bit slower paced than a lot of the films in the genre, and maybe even a little overlong. Those are the only two major complaints I have, however, so if you're looking for a creepy film, some interesting camera work, lots of jump scares, then you'll find The Tunnel to be an entertaining fright flick. If found footage bothers you, that's what this is, they make no bones about it.
If you would like to support The Tunnel, check out their page on Vodo.net right here: http://vodo.net/thetunnel ]
8.1/10 (B-)
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