Deathwatch (2002 film)

Deathwatch
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Michael J. Bassett
Produced by
Written by Michael J. Bassett
Starring
Music by
Cinematography Hubert Taczanowski
Edited by Anne Sopel
Distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date
  • 6 December 2002 (2002-12-06)
Running time
 94 minutes
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Germany
Language English

Deathwatch is a 2002 British-German horror film written and directed by Michael J. Bassett and starring Jamie Bell, Laurence Fox, Kris Marshall and Andy Serkis.

Plot

During the prologue, a squad of British soldiers assaults a German trench at night during World War I. Sergeant David Tate (Hugo Speer) is caught in the barbed wire and calls out to Private Charlie Shakespeare (Jamie Bell), a 16-year-old member of the squad, to rescue him from the entanglement. Shakespeare, however, runs off terrified into the fighting, only to be seemingly buried by shellfire moments later.

Next morning, the squad advances through a dense fog which, contrary to their fear, is not a poison gas. As they emerge from it, they come across a complex, maze-like network of German trenches, where they find an apparently besieged handful of terrified German soldiers, who at first ignore the cries of Private Willie McNess (Dean Lennox Kelly) to surrender in apparent terror of something else further down the trenches. Private Thomas Quinn (Andy Serkis) shoots the first and attempts to shoot the second, but McNess stops him and the German stumbles down the trench. The third, Friedrich (Torben Liebrecht), surrenders. Convinced they have broken through the enemy lines, the soldiers decide to secure the trenches. They explore them and find ominous signs that something there has gone very wrong: rotting bodies with protruding barbed wire and German bayonets litter the ground, apparently victims of in-fighting. While detonating charges to close off some passages, they hear a demon-like growl, and as they walk away fail to notice vast amounts of blood pouring from the mud.

Later, while Private Jack Hawkstone (Hans Matheson) explores more of the trench, he is called away by the other soldiers. As he turns to leave, a body covered in mud, leaning against the wall of the trench, turns out to be the second German, who had escaped from their initial encounter. As Hawkstone calls for help, the German lunges at him with a makeshift weapon and Hawkstone is forced to shoot him, wounding him and resulting in a muddy fistfight. During the skirmish, Private Barry Starinski (Kris Marshall) runs up and shoots the German, who falls to his knees. Quinn taunts and then executes him with a pistol round to the skull.

The isolation and sinister nature of the trenches soon exacts a toll on the British. Private Colin Chevasse (Ruaidhri Conroy) is slowly dying from a spinal injury he received during the prologue, and the German radio set they found cuts out after its first intelligible message, denying them any means to call for support. Fearful of the strange environment, they vent their rage upon the German prisoner, who is abused by everyone except Shakespeare, who becomes disgusted by the behavior, and Chevasse, who is too injured to move. During their first night, Starinski, who has isolated himself in a secluded area of the trench and is masturbating to pornographic images he looted from the German dead, is distracted by strange sounds and led deeper into the trenches, where he finds three German corpses wrapped in barbed wire in a standing position. As he shouts to alert the others, one of the corpses suddenly comes to life and ambushes him, his screams audible to the others. Shakespeare finds Starinski's corpse lashed to the wall of the trench with barbed wire. Suspecting that German troops hiding in the dugouts are responsible, the men violently interrogate the prisoner. Shakespeare manages to translate his ramblings from French, saying that they will turn on each other and that there's "evil" in the trenches.

Later that night, the commander, Captain Bramwell Jennings (Laurence Fox), begins to hear the sounds of artillery and an infantry attack, despite the fact the area is isolated. Panicked, he stumbles through the trenches in search of Sergeant Tate, who has sent Hawkstone searching for the captain, finally stumbling into the central area of the trench, where the squad has piled the German dead into a massive mound. His nerves on edge, he turns and mistakenly shoots Hawkstone when he hears him coming from behind. Despite the Captain's manslaughter, Tate remains fiercely devoted to his orders and refuses to abandon the trench. That same day, the men, believing the attacks and the strange events to be perpetrated by Germans still hiding in the trench, rig and collapse sections of the trench with explosives to give them a more defensible position.

The next night, more strange noises are heard, and the men's morale and discipline deteriorates even further, with Quinn reaching near-homicidal insanity. After McNess is pursued by an eerie red mist and completely drenched in blood and fear, he climbs out of the trenches and runs into no-man's land, but is shot in the leg by Private Anthony Bradford (Hugh O'Conor). A rescue attempt is made by Corporal "Doc" Fairweather (Matthew Rhys), the company medic, but McNess, crawling across the ground, is pursued by a moving mud mound that drags him underground. Meanwhile, Bradford, who has been found by Shakespeare, is convinced that both he and the trenches are possessed by death. Convinced that he will kill others, he asks Shakespeare to shoot him. When the latter refuses, Bradford runs off.

In the morning, Quinn, having finally lost his sanity, crucifies the German prisoner, Friedrich, on a wooden beam in no-man's land, binding his arms and legs with barbed wire. He then proceeds to beat him with his spiked club, daring any Germans there might be to shoot him and save their comrade. In the trench, Jennings, appearing to have also lost touch with reality, suddenly decides he wants a company inspection, and relieves Tate of duty when he refuses to comply. Fearing for the outcome of the standoff, both Shakespeare and Fairweather comply with the order, saving Tate from discipline. In the meantime, Jennings notices Friedrich screaming and moves off, going after Quinn. Apparently oblivious to Quinn's madness, he demands that he fall in for the inspection, but Quinn, already in a murderous frenzy, forces Jennings to his knees. Tate moves into no man's land and tries to stop him, and as he does so, Quinn tells Jennings to "make his peace", and stabs him to death with a knife. Tate attacks Quinn, and during the fight, Tate gets tangled in the barbed wire. Shakespeare rushes out of the trench to try and save Tate, but is too late, and Quinn kills Tate with the club. Shakespeare confronts him with his rifle raised, though he cannot bring himself to shoot him. Quinn taunts Shakespeare and, when he refuses to kill him, berates him as a coward. Shakespeare shouts that he at least isn't a murderer, to which Quinn replies that murder is all that soldiers do. Quinn raises the club and starts towards Shakespeare, but is stopped by living strands of barbed wire that rise up from the dirt and begin to wrap around and skewer him. Shakespeare then shoots Quinn, ending his torment, before cutting Friedrich loose.

Back in the trench, Shakespeare arms Friedrich, who has been crippled by Quinn's torture, with a rifle to defend himself. He then runs off, looking for Fairweather. Finding the paralysed Chevasse, now pale and pestered by flies, he discovers that he appears to be able to move his legs again. However, when Shakespeare lifts up the blanket that was covering him, he finds, to their horror, that rats have been eating Chevasse's legs. Horrified, Chevasse begins to scream uncontrollably, forcing Shakespeare to shoot him in the head to put him out of his misery. Shakespeare runs off again and finds the two remaining soldiers, Bradford and Fairweather. Bradford has tied Fairweather up with barbed wire, and both men plead Shakespeare to kill Bradford. Shakespeare refuses, and Bradford shoots Fairweather in the head. Shakespeare finally gives in and bayonets Bradford in the stomach before shooting him.

At that point, the soil under the German dead starts to cave in, while barbed wire blocks off every passage. Shakespeare tries to escape, but he stumbles and is sucked down into the darkness. He wakes up in a dark cave filled with corpses, at the end of which he finds living versions of the whole group while they were eating just the other night, including himself. He shouts defiantly that he isn't dead and runs off, reaching the surface of the trenches. Friedrich, now capable of walking and in perfect health, appears and points his rifle at him. Shakespeare, exasperated by the apparent betrayal, shouts in both English and French that he tried to help him. Friedrich acknowledges, in perfect English, that Shakespeare was indeed the only one who helped him, and, pointing to a ladder leading up into no-man's land, tells him that it is why he is free to go. Shakespeare asks what is out there, but Friedrich has already disappeared. Shakespeare climbs out of the trench and leaves to an unknown fate, disappearing into the mist.

Some time later, another team of British soldiers arrives at the trench. Seeing Friedrich sitting idly, they shout at him to surrender, to which he complies, lifting his hands. He makes an ominous stare before the screen fades.

Cast

Release

The film was released on DVD by Fox on Jun 16, 2003. It was re-released by Live/Artisan on Jun 22, 2004 and again by Pathe on Oct 3, 2005.[1]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Deathwatch received an approval rating of 25% based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10.[2] Critics mostly praised the film's creative premise and atmosphere, but criticized its story execution and editing.

Allmovie gave the film a positive review calling it "a highly crafted atmospheric creep-out that knows when to go for the jugular and when to slather on the paranoia".[3] TV Guide awarded the film 2.5/4 stars stating: "Bassett deserves half a salute for Twilight Zone-ish wallow in WWI misery, which works up some creepy atmosphere between scenes of dehumanizing combat. But the spook show element ultimately seems simultaneously ghoulish and hokey, and the pacifist moral is hammered home with blunt obviousness".[4] Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian gave the film a mixed review, praising the film's premise and direction but panned the film's dull script.[5]

Remake

Deathwatch was remade in 2018, under the title Trench 11. The British soldiers of the original were replaced by Americans and Canadians, and the antagonist was a social darwinist German mad scientist who bred parasitic worms that turned the infected into aggressive zombies.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Deathwatch (2002) - Michael J. Bassett". AllMovie.com. AllMovie. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "Deathwatch (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  3. ↑ Wheeler, Jeremy. "Deathwatch (2002) - Review - AllMovie". AllMovie.com. Jeremy Wheeler. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Pardi, Robert. "Deathwatch Review". TV Guide.com. Robert Pardi. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  5. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter. "Deathwatch | Culture | The Guardian". The Guardian.com. Peter Bradshaw. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  6. ↑ Trench 11
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