Deathwatch (2002)

A pro-war film, on a basic level, is still a treatise against war because someone always suffers. Even with the remote control wars we see waged on TV in our living rooms, the smart bombs which are supposed to extract the ones we don't particularly like still kill and/or wound people. WWI is often cited as one of the most brutally horrific wars man has engaged in. Of course the reason for this is that we had yet to write the rules by which modern day warfare would be waged. Sadly, we are those rules are still being written. While there have been quite a few films which have showcased the grimness of that time period, and while the horror film genre owes a bloody debt to that international conflict, there have been precious few horror movies set within that timeframe, if any.



- HBO's late lamented Carnivale utilized WWI in flashbacks to show the origin of a few characters, but it was never the main action.

- Edgar Ulmer's The Black Cat trods upon the bones of WWI as a backstory for the dark rites of the Satanist Poelzig (Boris Karloff), but never visits there.

- Gods and Monsters acknowledges the mental anguish which helped stimulate the nightmares of writers and filmmakers, but again on in a passing memory.

- The comic book which reads like a lost Universal Monster classic, The Black Forest, truly embraces the time period as being a fertile breeding ground for the WWI experience being a time of monsters both real and imagined.


Otherwise there really doesn't seem to be any examples of horror movies (cheating with the comic book, of course) set in the WWI theater.


That is until the recent UK/Czech co-production, Deathwatch (2002) which tries to fill the hole. Charlie Shakespeare is a sixteen year old British Private who finds himself terrified of trench warfare. After a disastrous battle, he and his squad find themselves wandering behind enemy lines. As luck would have it, they find an almost completely deserted set of German trenches which they commandeer. Taking a German soldier prisoner, they decide to wait for reinforcements despite the fact they have no contact with HQ. Overrun with viscous mud and hungry rats, there's more in the trench than meets the eye: either psychological breakdown from battle fatigue or a psychic force meting out retribution.


While low on gore and special effects, the film never looks cheap. A sprawling set was dug for the trench and the cinematography keeps things well framed and nicely lit. Add on an effective cast of actors including Jamie Bell (King Kong, Billy Elliot), Andy Serkis (Gollum from LOTR, King Kong), and the usual suspect working class British actors and there is enough weariness and short fused paranoia to spare. Doubtful they had much military training, but the gauntness and wild eyes and short fuses all add up to believability.


The ambitions of the film to imbue a supernatural overtone while suggesting simple madness is lofty and bit beyond the first time director, Michael J. Bassett. The task of marshalling an ensemble cast results in confusion for the viewer in terms of who is who and what exactly are they doing. Also, a more forceful hand might have lent greater unease as concerns the mystical forces at work as it does come off a bit too matter of fact. The deleted scenes show that the director may have had some of ambiguity imposed upon him, but it does weaken the film nevertheless. If you had to tag line the general feeling, though, I would rank it as a cross between John Carpenter's The Thing for paranoia/madness amongst the ranks and Michael Mann's The Keep for mixing war with unknown horrors. This isn't to say this is a great film, but definitely serviceable.