by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden
In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment it’s The Bunker by Brian Hanson.
Synopsis
When mysterious alien ships appear in the sky, scientist Dr. Michelle Riley (Chelsea Edmunson) is sealed in an underground bunker and must create a bio-weapon to stop the unknown visitors, but paranoia and isolation cause her to question the true intention of her mission.
The Good
Joseph: Edmunson gives a standout performance. Some of the kills and gore effects look good.
Mike: There’s certainly no shortage of alien invasion movies out there and while not many aliens show their faces in The Bunker, this is one of them.
Chelsea Edmunson’s great performance overshadows everyone else, including stalwart genre icons Tobin Bell and Tony Todd, though everyone else is fine in their roles, there is a caveat which falls into the next category.
There are some decent special effects on display as well as some very well done makeup effects including melting flesh, serious head wounds, and a disembowelment.
The plot, while pretty simple, allows for some character growth from Edmunson’s character who is our main protagonist.
The Bad
Joseph: The performances feel detached from one another. It’s similar to watching a screenlife horror movie — a subgenre I’m admittedly not very fond of — with characters talking to each other until something happens in the background. The Bunker does offer a few set pieces featuring the Riley character in places other than on a screen, but that doesn’t hide the fact that the performances don’t feel like the actors had each other to play off of. And the performances other than Edmunson’s range from pedestrian to scenery chewing. There also isn’t much suspense other than “Who will die next?”.
Mike: While all of the acting is “fine”, the big problem with The Bunker is that no-one’s performance relies or plays on anyone else’s, making it seem like each character is speaking to themselves and merely reacting to some scene direction they’ve read in the script. It seems like this has become a cheap and easy way to cobble something together as I recall a number of films during the COVID days that relied on this style. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. This is a cse where it doesn’t.
The Verdict
Joseph: An alien invasion movie featuring not much of an onscreen alien invasion, I recommend The Bunker solely for sci-fi movie and alien invasion movie completists.
Mike: While The Bunker has a decent enough premise and is full of better-than-average effects (both special and makeup), its style of having each character sequestered in their own bunker hampers any worthwhile character interaction, relegating it to on-screen conversations.
A better movie - one focusing solely on Edmunson’s character perhaps - lies in the nooks and crannies here. As it stands, this is a little too lifeless to recommend to anyone beyond dedicated alien-invasion fans.
The Bunker
Directed By: Brian Hanson
Written By: Charles L. Bunce, Brian Hanson
Starring: Tony Todd, Tobin Bell, Chelsea Edmundson
Run Time: 1h 31m
Rating: NR
Release Date: August 16, 2024 (United States)
There was no trailer available at the time of this review
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