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Monday, November 10, 2008

Review: Trackman

The second Ghost House Underground film we're reviewing is a Russian horror flick about a killer lurking in some abandoned tunnels called Trackman.

The film centers on a group of guys who have the perfect plan to rob a bank. When things go wrong, they snatch a couple hostages and escape into some abandoned tunnels beneath the city. Little do they know that someone else is down there with them. Someone with an eye fetish who wants nothing more than to pop out your peepers and keep them in a jar.

The movie starts out well enough. The first hour or so is pretty suspenseful and wonderfully shot but after that its kind of a mess.

The biggest problem of the movie is Trackman himself. He's a huge hulking beast (at least he is shot that way) that stomps through the tunnels and at some point during the movie he apparently learns how teleport. I'm talking Jason Vorhees teleport. There one second gone the next. It began to get annoying. One second he is about to wreck someone, to the point of raising his weapon into the air, and then the person spins around and Trackman is nowhere to be seen. He isn't exactly scary.

To be honest, it seems like we see more of Trackman lumbering around the tunnels than actually killing anyone. It's a shame considering that Trackman starts off so well. It just falls apart and loses its luster. You can see the good intentions here they just don't hold up or grow tiresome before the movie ends.

I like the idea of horror films set in tunnels. It's an unnatural environment for someone to be in and really has the makings of some good scares. None of those scares materialize in Trackman though so it is a bit of a waste. I guess this is Russia's first "slasher" film and you can see there were attempts to do something unique here. They just didn't pull it off.

For a better, scarier, underground set movie definitely check out The Descent or Creep. Both are UK films and both are a lot scarier than Trackman.

Ghost House Underground is 1 for 2 so far. Dance of the Dead is a fantastic film, Trackman not so much.

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