Prime Time: The Tunnel (2011)

A found footage horror movie that follows a journalist (Natasha Warner, played by Bel Deliá) and her crew as they investigate a large area of tunnels underneath Sydney, The Tunnel is a decent film that does well with limited means, although there were aspects of the movie that bothered me more than it will bother some other people. I'll get to those soon enough.

Basically, Natasha wants to base a story around these tunnels, knowing that they are possibly about to be put to another use, which will lead to the relocation of many homeless individuals who live down there (a claim denied by those who want nothing interfering with their plans). Four people, including Natasha, head into the tunnels. Not all of them will make it back to the surface.

What The Tunnel does really well is, thanks to the script, by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, and the performances, get you on edge from the earliest scenes. The whole film is framed as some kind of documentary, or TV special, that will reveal the events of a mysterious tragedy. And the whole look and feel of that framing style is spot on.

Deliá is good in the main role, someone who decides to venture into unknown territory with her small team, despite numerous obstacles and rejections making it obvious that it could be a bad idea. That's often what journalists do, I guess, so it's a believable starting point for everything starting to go wrong, especially when it comes to light that she has not been honest with her co-workers. Andy Rodoreda is Peter, Steve Davis is Steve, and Luke Arnold is Jim AKA 'Tangles', and the three do just as well as Deliá at portraying confusion and fear without just repeating themselves over and over again, as can happen so often with movies done in this style.

There's only one main problem with The Tunnel, but it's a problem big enough to have frustrated me for most of the second half. Basically, the characters have to move to night vision far too soon. Look, if you've seen enough found footage movies then you know to expect the night vision to be turned on in time for the finale. It makes things even more tense, gives everything an unnatural look, and can cover up a multitude of sins. Sadly, it kicks in here after the opening third. It's not permanent, thankfully, but is used far more than any other horror movie I can think of, and makes it very difficult to see what could be some very scary imagery.

I understand that the imagery may seem even scarier because of that black/green night vision look, don't get me wrong, but I can't help resenting something that makes me squint for so much of the runtime as I try to make out shapes, shadows, and just what exactly is coming into frame. That resentment increases when it turns out that I'm watching a creature feature that seems to not want to show a potentially impressive creature.

But I'm still glad I watched this, and I definitely enjoyed it, overall. So I encourage others to give it a watch. Oh, and don't make the same mistake I did, avoiding it for a number of years because I kept confusing it with the much worse Death Tunnel.

6/10

Here's the film on disc.