Ībandoned sites are also popular among historians, preservationists, architects, archaeologists, industrial archaeologists, and ghost hunters. Many explorers find decay of uninhabited space profoundly beautiful, and some are also proficient freelance photographers who document what they see, such as those who document the infrastructure of the former USSR. Haikyo are particularly common in Japan because of its rapid industrialization (e.g., Hashima Island), damage during World War II, the 1980s real estate bubble, and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. In Japan, abandoned infrastructure is known as haikyo ( 廃墟) (literally "ruins"), and the term is synonymous with the practice of urban exploration. Although targets of exploration vary from one country to another, high-profile abandonments include amusement parks, grain elevators, factories, power plants, missile silos, fallout shelters, hospitals, asylums, prisons, schools, poor houses, and sanatoriums. Many sites are entered first by locals and may have graffiti or other kinds of vandalism, while others are better preserved. Screening reviewed was compromised by an absence of German-language subtitles throughout the dialogue involving Stiglmeier’s character, although he’s so much of a type that interpretation hardly seems necessary.Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of urban exploration. Sinister sound effects and a generous gore factor provide a degree of genre-specific authenticity. Performances are strictly generic or else totally over the top in the case of Stiglmeier, whose outlandish appearance and extreme behavior scream psycho to the core. Once mayhem ensues, there’s little remaining investment in the characters’ survival. Starting off with an intriguing concept and the unique underground Berlin setting, screenwriter Martin Thau and director Andy Fetscher (who also shoots and edits) rapidly squander their advantage with a prosaic visual style, weak characterizations and predictable plotting. Once there, the American couple gradually grasps that they may have been safer remaining in the tunnels awaiting rescue than in the clutches of the unstable Armin. Speaking only German, which Denis can grasp at a basic level but Lucia doesn’t understand at all, he helps them evacuate Kris back to his network of bunkers.
Marie and Juna set off to find help on the surface while Lucia and Denis remain with their unconscious guide.Īssistance arrives sooner than expected with the appearance of Armin ( Klaus Stiglmeier), a hulking human castoff who calls the tunnels home. Their mission accomplished, the group begins the return trip, but an accident on a tricky tunnel crossing leaves Kris badly injured and in need of emergency medical care.
The group’s initial passage through a series of debris-strewn tunnels of varying dimensions and decrepitude is fairly uneventful, aside from a run-in with some very nasty, violent thugs who may or may not be Neo-Nazis, sending a distinct frisson through the group.Īrriving at the walled-off chamber after some mildly exciting subterranean escapades, they break in and marvel at the murals depicting a Nazi paramilitary paradise of sleek, expressionless men, women and children. Their target is a rumored Nazi bunker adorned with Aryan imagery that authorities have supposedly sealed from the prying of contemporary fascists.