TRENCH 11 (2017)

Studio:       RLJE Films
Director:    Leo Scherman
Writer:       Matthew Booi, Leo Scherman
Producer:  Tyler Levine
Stars:     Rossif Sutherland, Robert Stadlober, Charlie Carrick, Shaun Benson, Ted Atherton, Luke Humphrey, Jeff Strome, Adam Hurtig, Karine Vanasse

Review Score:

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Summary:

A small band of allied soldiers in WWI uncovers evidence of horrible chemical experiments in an underground German bunker.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

The Western Front – France, 1918 – Canadian military tunneler Lt. Berton unexpectedly survives after being trapped 78 feet underground for twelve days and left for dead.

3 Months Later – Battalion HQ – November 2, 1918 – British Major Jennings and Dr. Priest present intelligence to Colonel Ashcroft identifying an underground German bunker in the Forest of Argonne. Jennings and Priest suspect this trench is German officer Reiner’s base of operations for conducting deadly chemical weapons experiments that they must recover or neutralize. Ashcroft approves the duo’s request to perform reconnaissance with an experienced tunneler and an American military escort.

Berton is forced to leave behind his French lover Veronique to accompany Jennings, Priest, and American soldiers Captain Cooper, Sgt. Pronger, and Private Kelly into the underground compound. Led to believe the base was abandoned, the six men discover the dead bodies of several German soldiers.

German 5th Army – 2 Miles from the Front – General Ophuls orders Reiner, who is notoriously known as ‘The Prophet,’ and Captain Mueller, who despises Reiner, to erase all evidence of Reiner’s research in the Wotan compound. Reiner and Mueller head to the trench with a band of German soldiers.

The six allies encounter a raving German soldier. The soldier frantically warns the men to not open a door leading to the next part of the trench. Jennings and Berton open the door anyway. The soldier begs for Cooper to shoot him, which Cooper is forced to do when the soldier’s wild behavior continues.

Feral men unexpectedly attack the allied soldiers and officers. One of the men vomits a strange substance onto Kelly’s face. A grenade blast causes the tunnel to collapse.

Jennings orders Berton and Cooper to find another path out of the labyrinthine trench. Cooper and Burton fight off another feral soldier attack. Cooper ends up wounded.

Jennings and the other three men go on a recon sweep where they find a hospital room and records reporting on the experiments that turned test subjects rabid. Priest performs an autopsy on a feral soldier shot by Pronger. Slithering inside the man’s body, the men find string-like organisms that priest identifies as parasitic worms intentionally engineered as a disease. Priest later theorizes that the Germans intended to contaminate enemies’ livestock, but the disease unexpectedly jumped species.

Kelly and Pronger pull their guns on Jennings, demanding that they evacuate immediately. Jennings pulls his pistol too, demanding that the men obey his orders to collect intel. Reiner and Mueller’s soldiers suddenly enter the room and gun down Jennings and Pronger. Kelly and Priest are taken captive.

Elsewhere, Berton and Cooper discover a ladder leading outside, but are also taken prisoner.

Mueller informs the four captives that they have come to destroy the base and need their tunneler to help set the charges. Priest realizes that the Germans have no other way to contain the outbreak. Reiner pulls Priest away from the others to interrogate him separately.

Kelly suddenly succumbs to infection and bites off Cooper’s nose. Cooper dies. Berton recovers a gun in the commotion and shoots Kelly. At gunpoint, Berton demands the trench map from Mueller. Mueller reasons with Berton by explaining if Berton doesn’t help to blow up the base, more lives will be lost. Berton reticently agrees to work with Mueller.

Reiner brutally tortures Priest. Reiner then gives his soldiers orders to seal in Mueller and the others on the lower level.

Berton and Mueller bond over beer while setting explosives. Both men are forced to retreat when Reiner has gas released into the trench.

Mueller’s leg is broken when an infected soldier attacks. Berton’s remote detonation timer is also destroyed in the fray. Knowing he cannot go on, Mueller chooses to stay behind to activate the detonator manually, even though he will die. Mueller gives Berton time to escape.

Berton fends off another infected attack as he continues setting charges while making his way back to the escape hatch. Reiner confronts Berton at the ladder and shoots Berton in his leg. Mueller activates the detonator. The trench begins collapsing.

Berton battles Reiner in the commotion. Reiner ends up with his eye socket pierced by a virus sample vial he tried stealing. Falling dirt crushes Reiner.

Berton climbs the ladder to escape outside as the trench caves in. Berton is driven to limp forward by a vision of Veronique.

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Review:

You don’t often see wintry period pieces set during World War I in the horror/thriller genre.  That alone puts “Trench 11” off to a good start, albeit a slow one.

Having unexpectedly survived after being buried 80 feet underground for 12 days, Canadian military tunneler Lt. Berton understandably wants nothing more to do with subterranean settings.  Unfortunately for him, British intelligence located a secret bunker believed to be the German base of operations for deadly chemical weapon experiments, and they need Berton to navigate them through the tight trench.

Ripped from the arms of his French lover, Berton is forced to join a trio of American soldiers escorting British Major Jennings and medical-minded Dr. Priest into the labyrinthine lair.  What they don’t know is that the sadistic scientist responsible for the macabre research has been ordered to burn everything into oblivion.  They also don’t know that the compound they presumed was abandoned is actually populated by the feral products of that madman’s creation, and everyone is on a collision course for carnage.

Most of “Trench 11’s” cinematic influences hide in plain sight.  Patient, methodical body horror stokes shades of director Leo Scherman’s mentor David Cronenberg, particularly during a viscerally crunchy impromptu autopsy.  That same scene tips its doughboy helmet to the infamous chestburster sequence from “Alien,” with the confined paranoia of suspicious men confronting an uncertain outbreak echoing John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”  Less direct inspirations might bring to mind the man’s man militarism of “The Dirty Dozen” or “The Great Escape.”

Trapping all of these sweaty soldiers underneath tons of dirt while war rages overhead makes “Trench 11” a bit of a macho movie, though it doesn’t overdose on typical testosterone.  Momentum moves itself through mood rather than through action.  It shouldn’t be an unfair comparison to think of “It Comes at Night” (review here) in terms of atmosphere, except with actual infected attackers haunting the hallways as if they sprinted in from “28 Days Later.”

Don’t expect to see too much of the zombified antagonists however, since psychological tension builds the brunt of “Trench 11’s” terror.  Execution on this front meets with uneven results of effectiveness.  The premise implies claustrophobic intensity that isn’t exactly highlighted by the staging.  Actors are oddly afforded more space than one might think, making their environment play closer to a dark barn than a true tunnel.  The camera captures a chilly, uninviting maze, yet really aches to cram in closer for a heightened sense of breathless dread.

It wouldn’t be accurate to identify “Trench 11” as a gorehound’s dream, because its subtle suspense has sophistication rendering bloody shocks a secondary attraction.  It also wouldn’t be right to let its astonishing effects go by unrecognized.  “Trench 11’s” FX work from artist Francois Dagenais is 100% practical and 100% top-notch.  Again, the film is not a goopy splatterfest per se, but when it goes for the gore, it goes at it with gusto.  Several noteworthy shots would have been worthy of a Fangoria magazine cover or full fold-out poster back in the day.

Leo Scherman and co-writer Matthew Booi pen a straightforward story.  Economical filmmaking also makes the most of a $1.6 million budget, although extravagance isn’t required by this setup anyway.  While “Trench 11” isn’t at all uninteresting, anxious viewers will want to be aware that conversations can become chatty, as active energy isn’t foremost on the movie’s mind.

Speaking of chatty, if I may offer a casual aside to filmmakers casting Canadian actors as American characters: consider combing your script for words such as ‘house’ or ‘about.’  Just edit out the regional risk factor altogether.  Of course it’s not even close to a dealbreaker moment, but it is worthy of an immersion-breaking snicker when the ear can’t ignore someone pronouncing ‘sorry’ as ‘soar-ee,’ as happens in this film.

Compact plotting befits the compact style “Trench 11” uses to be a to-the-point and tightly wound thriller.  Ordinance isn’t inherent in its simplicity to detonate a big bomb of horror, but for a quick grenade blast of suspenseful shrapnel, “Trench 11” has the capability to keep an audience standing at attention, even when certain scenes sag.

Review Score:  65

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