The Tunnel-2011



Starring-Bel Delia(Natasha),Andy Roderedo(Peter),Steve Davis(Steve),Luke Arnold(Tangles)

Directed by-Carlo Ledesma.

Well where can i start,lets see,another faux par documentary,found footage,shaky cam,based on true events but actually for once this kind of works!

It's the story of a series of underground tunnels in the Australian city of Sydney,There is a water shortage and plans by the government to use the lakes that lay beneath the tunnels to help out,but there is a problem.

This is where we see the first interview with the journalist Natasha about  a video she has seen on you tube where some kids are graffitying near the tunnels when something very strange is happening,She senses a government cover up having read about the homeless using the tunnel's as a place to live,as this has happened in several countries before she wants to investigate to help the homeless from at least having somewhere to stay and not all being thrown out and having to live or die on the streets.

But is there something else or someone else living down there?

This is where they start to make their documentary and interview a homeless guy in view to what it's like down there,at first he is talking fine and everything is going well then they ask him a question which send hims loopy,goes off his head,not in a mad angry way just in the way he completely looses his mind.

So that's it now for Natasha she really has the bit  between her teeth and wants to get down there as soon as possible.

She convinces the rest of her news crew,Peter,Steve and sound recordists Tangles to go,Now you have to have a permit to enter the tunnels which for some reason she could not get or was not allowed to get,so she knows a guy called John that can sort this out and tells the rest of the crew that it's all sorted and it's time to go.

On arrival at the station the are confronted by a guard who asks for the permit and when they don't have one refuses to let them in,so she tells him John said its OK to let them in but he does not believe them and tells them to go away,she tries to have a whip round of everyone who is there to bribe the security guard with money but he is having non of it.So they turn and walk away but one of the crew has an old map of the tunnels and guess what......manages to find an alternative way in!

So the film starts,Now i do have to say the setting for this i.e. dark tunnels is very atmospheric indeed,genuinely creepy in fact,also a good thing about it until the end is that its the camera man filming it on quite a steady cam so as i said it doesn't do super annoying shaky cam until the last segment of the film.

So,We are inside the tunnels and Natasha and the crew are looking for evidence of people living down there when the stumble upon a room that is obviously inhabited deep down into the tunnel,in fact she does say after an hour of searching they have found evidence of people living down their,so the carry on with there search of the creepy tunnels when the find a huge bell and it's explained that the tunnel were used during WW2 as training and shelter facilities and this bell when rang was a warning of impeding attack.

So Natasha for the footage says she is going to strike the bell and asks the sound man Tangles to record which he does but it's so loud that his recording levels are way too high,he says He record it in the adjacent room so its not so harsh on his levels,she bangs the bell and as it fades we here a huge scream form the room where Tangles has gone into so they rush in and he's gone.



So you get then basic idea now right?The go on the hunt for Tangles but to no avail until the stumble upon a room that's splattered in blood and find his torch,Natasha leaves her nigh vision camera on the floor outside the room whilst the others film in the blood soaked room,when the come out the camera has been moved down the corridor,they look at it and they have all been filmed whilst in the room in addition there is a one framed shot of the face of something known only in the films credits as The Stalker.

I will let you decide from this point on whether it's the kind of film you'd like to see or not but i would say it certainly has atmosphere and is above par from a ton of these films made nowadays,it the first feature film from director Carlo Ledesma and it's easy to see that he is a horror fan,with influences from everything from Death line(Raw meat) to the great Neil Marshall film The Descent,By the way check out Carlos on IMDB he only looks about 10!

Also as a bonus this film has been released online as a free legal down loadable torrent!

So if you have a rainy day or are looking for something 90mins long you could do a lot worse than this.

6/10 Jonny T.