Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Depraved
Depraved, 2011/ 88 min
(aka Urban Explorer aka Urbex)
Four urban explorers from around the globe meet up in Berlin to explore subterranean Nazi era relics. They do not have permission, or permits of any kind, they will simply navigate the underground maze of tunnels and sewers in search of a bunker known as the Fahrerbunker. It’s legendary and they hope to experience it for themselves. The entrance point is in the basement of a club.
The bunker has been walled up but they brought tools to break in. On the way they find shell casings and targets, an underground shooting gallery. A border barrier that separates East and West Berlin, then old underground slave quarters and the walls are marked to lead the way.
They soon encounter trouble, 2 men assault them and are worried they’ve been photographed.
Later, during a break that talk about the Nazi Space program, Reichsflugscheibe, Nazi technology and The Odin was a space ship. And in preparation for space travel experiments that were supposedly done including torture to increase pain tolerance and combining human genes with animals. It is said that those who survived fought back and still live in the tunnels and catacombs. That they play music to lure tourists down into the tunnels so they can have slaves on their space ship. Or so the story goes…
During this tour, they go to a part of the tunnels Kris/Dante (Max Riemelt) has never been but they find a wall and tear into it and they are immediately uneasy. On the other side, they find walls of murals and remnants of what might have happened here. Then an accident happens and Kris falls and breaks his leg and it’s bad.
Marie (Catherine DeLéan) and Juna (Brenda Koo) go find help but Lucia (Nathalie Kelley), a nurse, stays with Denis (Nick Eversman), to help. A homeless man, Armin (Klaus Stiglmeier) arrives to help but all they can do is trust him for now. And that was a big mistake.
From the minute Denis and Lucia are welcomed into his lair, the game begins and they do not even realize it. Nothing is what it seems but the drugs, tools of torture and the cage Denis eventually wakes up in, is real. Armin starts on Lucia first and her screams reverberate through the tunnels.
Even escaping isn’t escaping, everything is a disturbing game of cat and mouse where the mouse only has hope it’ll escape, but in reality there is no escape and no hope.
This is a German slasher that is in both German and English. The pacing is good and the physical effects are strong. This is a slow burn that culminates in very graphic and gory scenes with a lot of violence and brutality.
