The Bunker
The Bunker
PG-13 | 26 September 2015 (USA)
The Bunker Trailers

A student moves in with a family that lives in an underground house in the middle of the forest, far from civilization. His hopes of peace and quiet are soon shattered, when it becomes apparent that both the parents and their son have a screw loose.

Reviews
Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie
SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Michael Ledo This is a film that tells you what is going on, yet I had no idea. Pit Bukowski plays "the student" who rents a room at The Bunker for peace and solitude for his work which looks like scribbling, but clearly is something deeper. He is short on his rent money and eventually it is agreed upon he is to teach their son Klaus (Daniel Fripan) for the shortcoming. Klaus is to grow up to be President, yet doesn't have the sense or social graces to be functional in society. Mom (Oona von Maydell) at the risk of giving too much away (30 minute PLOT SPOILER) talks to Heinrich who has moved into her through her leg. He is a great leader from a distant Galaxy here to...who knows but he got sick and moved in her body. Knowing all of this didn't make my understanding of the film any better. Father (David Scheller) is well educated and clearly he sees what is going on...but maybe he doesn't.The film was engrossing and somewhat entertaining, but I felt lost like Klaus.Guide: No swearing. Sex and nudity Not for everyone.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Der Bunker" or "The Bunker" is a German movie from 2015. The writer and director is Greek-German filmmaker Nikias Chryssos and I am kinda surprised how much awards attention his work here received. This film does not strike me as something that awards bodies may appreciate, but I am clearly wrong. Of course, the likes of the German Film Awards did not honor it, but it scored awards all over the planet, even in Mexico for example. And I am positively surprised by that as these 85 minutes were a pretty interesting watch, and certainly quite entertaining. You cannot categorize this film easily at all. It is a touch of drama, a touch of coming-of-age, a touch of comedy, a touch of thriller, a touch of horror and probably more. This is the story of a student who starts working as a teacher for a boy who lives in a bunker with his parents. These four are also all the cast members in here. All the action takes place in the bunker and only very rarely you see a shot of the snowed-in outside of the bunker. Civilization has clearly forgotten about them. The fact that this boy is played by an actor who is actually the second-oldest cast member here says a lot about the absurdity of the film. But it does so in a good way as it also helps in showing us how the movie never takes itself seriously. It is difficult to say whether the character is also intended to be around the age of 30 despite being the "son". There is one occasions when the teacher says he looks much older than 8 years, so maybe yes. But it's not important either. I believe the story here could have easily turned this film into a huge piece of ridiculous garbage, but the actors and the filmmaker are so good that it is actually working. This is not only thanks to Chryssos, but especially thanks to actor Daniel Fripan, who plays the boy, (admittedly the Angela Merkel haircut is helping too, and Oona von Maydell, who was absolutely brilliant in depicting the characters insanity apparently caused by an evil wound on her leg that makes her somewhat possessed. (And man was she hot. Absolute fetish material her character here.) Of course, Bukowski and Scheller were good too, they just did not have as much to work with as the other two, even if the former is probably playing the central character. The ending made me think of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" a bit with the way things turned out. Not sure if that was intended by the filmmaker, but it reminded me a lot of that. There was nothing in this film I really disliked apart from a couple moments here and there. For example, I did not like that the teacher also started sucking on the mother's breasts on one occasion. The only explanation I had for this scene was probably that it had to do with the evil spirit inside her. And the last shot with the student doing the work in the house for the parents was also a bit strange I think. It came out of nowhere and honestly, I expected the student to die after he was stabbed. But all in all, these minor flaws in here should not distract you from how good and atmospheric a film this was. It is closer to a ****/***** than to a **/*****. I certainly recommend the watch to everybody who likes subtle horror (and who despises splatter and gore) as much as I do. See it now!
Leofwine_draca THE BUNKER is a weird little German film for those who enjoy offbeat or obscure cinema like TAXIDERMIA or the films of Jan Svankmajer. It doesn't really have much of a plot or narrative arc, instead it's a slice of very-weird-life set in a rather bizarre family home. The protagonist is your usual young, upstanding teacher who takes on a home schooling job for a couple's son. Most of the time he's in the cellar, teaching the kid geography and the like, but after a time he gets drawn into the family's weird ways.I'm not really sure how to describe THE BUNKER, other than to say it's not particularly enjoyable. Some parts reminded me of the films of Werner Herzog but lacking the artistry and the subtext. Pit Bukowski is weird as the grown up kid, but weird in a good way and I did warm to him a little as the story went on. He comes across as a mix of Kaspar Hauser and Peter Bark in BURIAL GROUND! The other characters aren't as memorable, but there's a smattering of sex and violence to keep viewers engaged. As I said, it didn't work out too well for me.
jimferguson-45007 In German but the subtitles are excellent and once you get into the movie you hardly notice that you are reading them. It is dark humour so don't expect to laugh, just enjoy the weird plot and characters. The twist of a minimal Science Fiction core just makes it all the more intriguing. At the end, I just wanted to see a follow up and prequel to this as all of the characters had so much more to be explored character wise.Thoroughly recommended if you like foreign off the wall movies (old-boy, lady vengeance etc). The opening scene just hooks you in, things are not going to end well for the guest. The introduction of a previous an alien encounter by the wife / landlady just intrigues but does not in anyway dominate the plot. Watch and enjoy.