Set in the real life Waverly Hills Sanatorium and based to some degree in historical fact, Death Tunnel has a lot going for it before you even see the movie. It is filmed on location in a fantastically creepy setting with an appropriately grim history – over 63, 000 people died there and were removed via the “death tunnel” of the title, a 500 ft long hidden passageway used for surreptitiously disposing of the dead. It is also reputedly haunted by real ghosts, evidence of which the makers of this film claim to have encountered while shooting it. Whether or not this is true or just a neat piece of marketing is unclear. What is clear is that despite all of this interesting back-story, Death Tunnel is actually a very poor film.

The set-up is simplicity itself – five very scantily clad girls (part of the initiation is obviously that they have to be wearing negligees) are masked and left on five different floors with five different ghosts for five hours. Everything else about the situation is less simple, if this is supposed to be some sort of initiation ceremony then why are the girls unconscious when they are put into hospital? Why have their (skimpy) clothes been changed? Did the college boys who run this game drug them, strip them then put them in weird padlock masks and lock them in a deserted building? Isn’t that generally construed as sexual assault and kidnapping? Remember that this is all before the ‘real’ weirdness even starts. It just doesn’t hold together.

It doesn’t help matters that none of the characters are given more than a couple of lines of back-story before they are put into the hospital. We know nothing about these people and care about them even less. It is not until the climax that any information at all is revealed about anyone, even then it is only about three of the original eight characters.

A worse crime than having these anonymous characters there at all is having these anonymous characters do nothing for practically the entire film. Most of the running time is taken up by the girls wandering around the freezing corridors looking frightened. No tension is built up whatsoever and worse than this, no interest or intrigue is developed either making for a very dull viewing experience.

The dullness of this movie is only offset by its frankly bizarre direction and editing. It is as though the director was given an extra month in post production in which he locked himself in the editing room with a bucket full of crack. The saying ‘over-egging the pudding’ might be apposite if it was talking about dinosaur eggs. There is hardly a scene in the film that is allowed to play out for more than a few seconds without flicking to some flashy effect, crazy camera angle or flashback sequence. It is exhausting to watch. These techniques can all be used to powerful effect when used in moderation at the right time, when they are used constantly throughout the whole film they are just baffling. The non-linear story structure is pointless and only adds to the confusion.

In its favour the film does have some very attractive sets courtesy of the ready built location and they are dressed and lit very well. The hospital really looks like a terrifying place to be, it’s just a shame that the director didn’t have enough faith in his location to reign in the constant barrage of flickering ghosts and screeching sound effects long enough for any real sense of dread to set in.

It is apparent that this film has been made by an enthusiastic director with a passion for the horror genre, it’s just a pity that his passion with other movies has overridden any desire he might have had to make a distinctive work of his own. There are bits and pieces of so many other films here, most notably Saw, Thirteen Ghosts, Session 9, House of 1000 Corpses and The House on Haunted Hill (remake) as well as a large portion of the Silent Hill series of video games. The resultant film is very good-looking with some distinct visual flourishes and arresting images but essentially a derivative confusion of other people’s ideas.

Rating 5/10

Review By Matt Compton