British Horror is Horrific
Rating: 1/10
Running Time: 95 minutes
UK Certificate: 15
This film isn't pretty. It's a poor man's Hellraiser
Set in 1917 in the war-stricken European trenches, a lone unit of ten men face an unknown (and fabulously low budget) evil that manipulates them solely for some unspeakable purpose (it gets its kicks from killing B List actors).
Reminiscent of The Thing, this film divides this troupe of fine actors, but fails to conquer on all levels. Armed only with weak characters and pointless dialogue, Deathwatch ambles along in a desperate attempt to build atmosphere and some modicum of terror as the troupe succumb steadily to madness, but instead only manages to send the viewer insane with boredom.
It is full of tired army cliches, the scripts are dreadful. The only slight saving grace is Jamie Bell. After his outstanding performance in Billy Elliot, he does a passable job as the innocent Shakespeare and manages to maintain some semblance of sincerity in this dirty and bleak movie.
If you liked Saving Private Ryan you'll almost certainly hate this.
If you liked The Thing, there's nothing new and certainly nothing better here.
For a very different opinion of this movie, read Andrea Chee’s Review of Deathwatch
It's Got: Mud. Lots and lots of mud
It Needs: Better dialogue. Better special effects
Summary
This film isn't pretty. It's a poor man's Hellraiser Set in 1917 in the war-stricken European trenches, a lone unit of ten men face an unknown (and fabulously low budget) evil that manipulates them solely for some unspeakable purpose (it gets its kicks from killing B List actors). Reminiscent of The Thing, this film divides […]