La Tranchée

Basset is not utterly incompetent (his later horror film Wilderness is pretty decent), but his début was worse than it could and should have been. I really liked the depressive atmosphere and the feeling of a mysterious evil at the beginning, but after some time it was overcome by boredom, I completely lost interest in the characters and the pleasant feeling was suddenly gone. (16/09/2011)

The first half hour gets 4 stars, "first contact" gets 5, the rest 2, and the ending is just terrible. The characters it was supposed to be based on cease to be interesting the moment Bassett trades in the perceived evil for cheap psychosis, the first "friendly fire," and tops it all off with a heavyweight barbed wire bondage fetish. That’s quite unfortunate considering the actors involved. One would expect more from a European horror film. (26/05/2010)

An indictment of war. Soldiers herded into the field and generals somewhere behind the front line sipping tea and ticking off possible successes. The horror props here serve mainly to make the audience fully aware of the senselessness of warfare. Decomposing bodies, wires that wrap around and penetrate the skin like a hot knife through butter, gnawed feet from rats, and madness. Once upon a time I was a little more satisfied, so I'm keeping the rating, but I have to admit that the ending is definitely emotional. (20/08/2024)