Film Reviews

Deathwatch

• Rating:
• Director: Michael J. Bassett.
• Starring: Jamie Bell, Ruaidhri Conroy, Laurence Fox, Dean Lennox Kelly, Kris Marshall, Hans Matheson, Hugh O'Connor, Matthew Rhys, Andy Serkis, Hugo Speer.
• Details: UK and Ger / 95 mins / (15PG).

Set during World War One, Deathwatch follows a group of weary soldiers who are cut off from their fellow allies during a particularly vicious night time battle. The following morning, the nine soldiers, who include the 16-year-old boy Private Shakespeare (Bell in his first major performance since Billy Elliot), find themselves in a curious no-mans land. After happening across a German trench, and overpowering the few enemy soldiers within it, the small company await back up. They soon find themselves doing battle against an unseen enemy, and one who appears to be more powerful than even the most stoic German resistance. War, in case you were wondering, is hell, which is something that you're never likely to forget watching Deathwatch. To be fair to Michael J. Bassett, however, he presents a particularly unnerving portrait of life in the trenches, a squalid existence only slightly preferable to death. Despite its meagre budget, it's an effective looking movie, but the overwhelming problem with Deathwatch lies with Bassett's inadequacies as a writer. Instead on focusing on the horrors of trench warfare, the director insists on fashioning a film which is reliant on the traditional vices of the horror movie. It's a shame because there's a meaty drama here which has overshadowed by the worst gimmicks of the horror genre.

Review by Garreth Murphy