If there is one word that could sum up The Bunker Game it is "urgh". I have seen worse films, much worse films, but there's something about this that makes it tiresome and annoying for almost every minute of the runtime. It's a film I would have much preferred if it had been made by Dark Castle at the turn of the century, because at least they would have punctuated the tedious first half with a few more genuine scares and gory moments. And you might have found a character or two that you felt was worth caring about.
I suspect something may have been lost in translation, as it is an Italian and French co-production with everyone speaking English, but there's also a lack of experience behind the camera that could explain the mistakes made throughout.
A group of people are in a big bunker, all taking part in a very strange Live Action Role Playing game that seems to be set during a nuclear war, and also seems to be creating a narrative about the resurgence of Nazism, and the need for a eugenics program that will ensure the successful survival of the human race. Something goes a bit wrong. Someone goes missing. All of the players are asked to leave, and it's up to the staff to explore the bunker to find the missing person. But they're not alone in the bunker. Of course.
I almost smashed my computer screen while writing the above paragraph. Who thought this was a good idea? Of all the ways to get people into a bunker and create a backstory that could create something supernatural from the past impinging on the present, who actually sat down and thought "yes, let's make a nuclear war scenario that also involves Nazism and eugenics"? Nobody is throwing down their wooden swords and elf ears for that one, surely. I know which scenario I'd prefer . . . I just generally tend to go for the games that don't need me to stay onside with Nazis. Manuel Cacciamani, Francesca Forristal, and Davide Orsini obviously thought otherwise, however, with Cacciamani coming up with the idea that the other two, plus the director, turned into a screenplay. It's a terrible starting place for the story, and even worse when you realise that it isn't going to be twisted entertainingly enough in the second half of the film. If this had leaned into things, if it had gone "full Death Ship" at some point, then I wouldn't have been so bothered. But it doesn't, and there are easily a dozen different ways this scenario could have been set up.
Director Roberto Zazzara has a background made up of mostly shorts and documentary features, and I am struggling to see why he thought this was the best project to put out as his fictional feature debut. He clearly doesn't see the weakness and problems in the script, a script he helped write, and he manages to do nothing visually to distract viewers from the more awful elements.
I've already said enough bad things about people involved in this, so I'll just namecheck the main cast members. They are Gaia Weiss, Mark Ryder, Makita Samba, Felice Jankell, Lorenzo Richelmy, Tudor Istodor, and Amina Smail. Weiss gets the lead role, Samba gets one memorable scene, and that's all I will say, mainly because I don't want to be too rude to people who may simply have been unable to help salvage a film that seems to have been doomed from the ill-conceived first draft.
If you didn't want to read everything in between, and skim down here to see the rating, I'll just say that there is at least some decent camerawork saving this from being the worst of the worst, but . . . urgh.
3/10
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