DVD Cool Things: Deleted Scenes, Wide screen view, 2 Commentaries (actors, actor/director) Genre: Horror: Suspense/Historical
Review in a Nutshell: "All’s an episode of the Twilight Zone on the Western Front."
Ahh, Lion’s Gate. I don’t know how they do it, but they tend to put out bad movies that are actually pretty good-—much better than they should ever have a right to be. As is the case with this B-movie War/Horror story, “Deathwatch”.
WHEN: 1917—the Western Front (Thanks Opening titles!)
CHARACTERS: Your standard clichés of army soldiers, except in WWI. There’s Captain “Pretty boy got his commission due to blue blood”, Sergeant “Don’t call me sir, I work for a living” (Actual quote!), and of course “Mad Killer”, “Religious Medic”, and our hero, Private “Lied about my age to get to war and boy am I surprised this isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be”, or as his family calls him, Shakespeare. There are a few surprises. First, Shakespeare actually is his name. Secondly, instead of a black guy who’s always getting put on, it’s a Scottish guy. He basically fills all horror requirements of the “black guy” stereotype (target of racism (?), some humor, the only guy smart enough to realize they should leave), but it’s World War I, and I think only whites were allowed to kill back then… Finally, there’s Andy Serkis (Gollum) as Private Thomas “I sure do like killin’!” Quinn. Everyone else is dressed in uniform—Quinn has some Viking, chaos warrior furs on and—of all things—a human scalp collection. Plus he’s played by Gollum, so I think we know if he’s crazy or not.
Plot Synopsis: It’s World War I, and the clichéd survivors of Y Company end up lost and in a deserted German Trench, when they begin to realize something’s amiss. Things like; everybody’s dead, and the compass doesn’t work, and BARB-WIRE ZOMBIES! Things, as you can assume, go quickly downhill from here.
Top Five Things we Learn in This Movie: 1.World War I sucked, but it can always get worse. 2.Forces of evil should really pay more attention to barbed wire—it’s cheap, it’s effective, and it can make zombie puppets of the dead! 3.The guy who collects scalps? Maybe we shouldn’t trust him under pressure… 4.Don’t be paralyzed in World War I. Or a horror movie. Or a horror movie in WWI. 5.If your radio guy can’t get any communications, but is still writing at a frenzied pace ala “The shining”, maybe you should see what he’s writing.
Impressions First off, this movie looks good for its small budget. There’s an opening trench attack scene that plays well, and while not state of the art or hyper-realistic, does look like they had some money, even though they didn’t. The production value of this movie is good—it looks like a low-budge cable movie—above USA, below HBO.
The movie (fitting into the “gory suspense” genre) quickly falls into some well-trodden plots, especially for war/horror—most gamers will instantly guess what’s going on after the main titles. This, combined with the cardboard cutout characters (well-acted, but…), and the movie doesn’t really do much outside the box of staple horror.
But there are some advantages. First, it doesn’t do the standard horror trip of “here’s exactly what happened 500 years ago”. You’re never really sure of what’s doing this or where they are, but with enough to guess what’s going on. There’s a few decent lines, some creative use of lighting and camera, and the acting is decent. All in all, from a standard movie review, the thing gets a B-: Not great, but worth the spare cash for a rental.
For the Gamers (Spoilers...I guess...) What can we take from this movie for our games? First, WWI, while difficult, does have options for settings for our games. Especially if you get away from the “everyone charge and die” of the war, and involve a little magic or horror—always good to add to way, I think. You’ve also got a band of 8 guys (4-6 gamers, 2 spam), and a controlled environment that keeps them within the realm of what the GM planned for. Basically, it’s a Call of Cthulu one-shot (which I’m pretty sure Chasoium did one year at Gen-con…).
The opening is interesting to note for gamers. Basically, the GM says “you charge out into no man’s land…explosions and bullets…you see gas coming…suddenly, you’re walking in the middle of a misty field of trees, and have no idea where you are.”
Well, say that to most gamers, and they’ll instantly go “Ok, we’re all dead—let’s try to kill Satan and take over the afterlife!”, instead of wondering what’s going on as most movie characters do. And I admit, the characters begin to assume something strange is happening sooner than some other movies, but still—something you have to be careful with when stealing from movies is that gamers tend to be smarter than characters, which is why we yell at the screen (“Idiot! Not that door!”).
But the biggest thing about this movie I think for our hobby is the fact that I don’t really know what’s going on. Sure, I’m assuming their dead—so do the charactgers. But the thing is—is this Hell? Purgatory? Some messed up Cthonic horror? A death “life before your eyes” moment? Basically—you know what’s happening, but not the whys. While this can kind of take away from a movie, I think it did help the horror factor—nobody knew what was going on. As GM’s, I know we all want to show our great our ideas are, but sometimes it’s easier to simply describe once the game is done, and let the players, and their characters, wonder about what’s really going on, and what that thing is eating their leg.
Closing Thoughts Blood: Low for a Horror, High for a Suspense. This movie should be: Rented when you have a spare 5 in your wallet. Style: Good stuff: 4 Substance: Could be better, but the actual lack of narration helped. 3—a solid suspense/horror.
