"It feels like we've been walking around this place for days. It's doing my nut in!"This micro-budgeted British horror is getting a near-simultaneous release across a range of media platforms, which is either to satisfy modern consumers' demand for whichever format they want to watch or to maximise takings before word-of-mouth spreads. The director suggests in the bonus features that the idea was too compelling for a short and was subsequently developed further, but running at a meagre 73 minutes it feels much, much longer. The majority of the movie consists of the trapped 'students' wandering around murky tunnels, their disinterest rapidly empathised with by the viewer. Characterisation is basic, dialogue is alarmingly dire, pacing is leaden and little happens. An attempt at a score wanders in randomly, and themes such as war, genetic engineering and patriotism are shoehorned in to give some kind of sci-fi justification for the whole plot which actually makes little sense. A couple of reasonably-handled gore moments liven things up briefly, but even then the actors do not seem that bothered by events. The fact that even Danny Dyer did not attend the premiere speaks volumes. Basement is murky, dull and utterly unengaging.
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