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The Tunnel (2011) – Australian kickstart

There was a time when found footage movies were all the rage, The Tunnel is proof that a lot of them were not that great. But maybe we find something in the Australian tunnels worth salvaging? Only one way to find out!


Climate change drives people to innovation. The Australian government starts a project to preserve water from the ancient tunnels all over Sydney, but suddenly the project is abandoned. A news team or rather one person in that team sees a story. She pushes everyone to follow up the story and they end up breaking into the tunnels to find the scoop. They find the reason the project was abandoned. Or rather, the reason finds them! Not exactly a revolutionary story found footage wise but also not a horrible premise.

The Tunnel follows some of the found footage formula. It has the shitty cameras, the getting lost part, the anger/despair, and of course the interviews. The problem is that you know who survives and who doesn’t because the interviewed people are of course the survivors. The shitty cameras breaking up and whatnot doesn’t really have any explanation other than crappy camera = creepy. Them getting lost is very obvious even in the beginning because the map wasn’t complete. It feels like the movie holds your hand too much in some parts and just disregards you in others.

The “monster” is unexplained pixels that may or may not be a frog being. There really isn’t anything to let your imagination run on so you’re just left feeling confused. The characters are boring, loud, and without any interesting personality traits. Half of the movie is just screaming and running around. I can see that there is a movie here, there are hints of an interesting plot, but since it is never really talked about I can’t really muster up any interest.

The Tunnel was a Kickstarter. They had a good idea that wasn’t very well executed. Instead, you got a pretty boring “mockumentary/found footage” snoozefest. Nothing really happens and the things that do happen either don’t make sense or are just so bog standard that it wouldn’t garner a reaction out of me even if they slapped me across my face! This is by far the weakest movie thus far in Spooktober. I cannot and will not recommend it. Watch Blair Witch or Rec instead of this.

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