The Tunnel - Nothing you haven't seen before

Whether you enjoyed the Blair Witch Project or not, it set a president in these `found footage' horror films. Over recent years they've been cropping up in every country, showing us the tale of people who - for some reason - feel the need to feel the entire of their supernatural encounter, right up until the point of their demise.

This is Australia's entry into the genre.

It starts off slow. You can basically skip the entire first half hour - it's all backstory and character-building. Some may like a slow start, others won't, but, either way, you'll still be able to understand the film if you do.

It's about four members of a news crew who go below Sydney into the abandoned underground system to get a story. Naturally, they get more than they bargained for. Unfortunately, what follows is simply the same as you'll see in any other `found footage' film. You have people running around screaming, talking into camera, shaky camerawork, only brief flashes of whatever is hunting them, the obligatory night-vision shots, getting lost and bickering with each other and so on.

Yes, it's well acted and nicely presented, but, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the film were the `interviews.' Whereas in other `found footage' films they go the other way and have a piece of text at the beginning telling (spoiling?) the viewer by saying this footage was all that was found, i.e. everyone in the film is dead or missing. The Tunnel Movie interviews the survivors all the way through the film, cutting their thoughts on what they've filmed. For me this kind of told me who survives and who doesn't. I felt the interviews should have been taken out all together. At least that way the viewer wouldn't know who lives and who dies until the end.

The Tunnel Movie is okay. There's nothing bad I can really say about it, but then there's nothing that I haven't seen before. If it was released before Blair Witch, it would have been the benchmark with which all others are measured against. Sadly, it's nearly fifteen years too late for that title, therefore it gets lost in the multitude of `Blair Witch clones.'

Not bad, but nothing new.

6/10 May just keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights