TRACKMAN - **

Directed by Igor Shavlak. Starring Dmitriy Orlov, Svetlana Metkina and Aleksandr Vysokovskiy. Horror, Russia, 87 minutes, cert 18.

Released in the UK on DVD by Lionsgate on 16 May 2011, £9.99

Opening with scenes of two men planning a bank robbery, TRACKMAN's main objective is to get its cast into a catacomb of tunnels beneath Moscow as quickly as possible. It does this within a few minutes – the heist goes wrong, two policemen are shot, and the four thieves and their three hostages have no option but to flee. Lulled into a false sense of security, they hide underground, unknowingly trapping themselves with a goggle-wearing psychopath.

With a plot so sparse, the clichés become all the more obvious. The characters are severely undeveloped and stereotyped – the untrustworthy loose cannon, two forgettable henchmen, the kind-hearted hero who wanted the bank's money without fatalities, two hysterical, screaming women in high heels, and a policeman taken as collateral. As the group gets increasingly lost in the maze, they are simply begging to be picked off one by one by the shadowy killer, who appears and disappears in an instant despite his hulking great size and heavy boots.

Problematically, with no character development and no plot beyond the journey, TRACKMAN quickly becomes boring rather than tense. The killer is dull and uninspired – pinching more than a few aspects of the slasher in both versions of MY BLOODY VALENTINE, he sports a pick-axe and an eye-removing tool, has a creepy lair with lots of ominous jars, but lacks reason or intent. Early in the film, one character discusses an urban legend about glow-in-the-dark Chernobyl mutants abandoned in the tunnels – despite the absurdity of this statement, one starts to hope that the killer, covered from head to toe, will be revealed as one such being. Regretfully, this is not the case.

The idea of a group of people trapped underground and terrorized by a shadowy, ruthless being can be very effective – perhaps TRACKMAN's director Igor Shavlak should have watched THE DESCENT for some pointers. A host of camera tricks are used to no avail – jumpy slow motion is utilised every time something vaguely frightening happens, ensuring even the most ignorant viewer will know when to cower. Shadows flit and darkness encases the characters in a valiant attempt to create atmosphere, but the constantly repeated scenes of dank, damp passageways are tedious, not tense. The soundtrack consists almost exclusively of ominous tones instead of actual music, although in a climactic fight sequence a strange techno beat is introduced, jarringly evoking early beat-em-up computer games.

TRACKMAN fails far more frequently than it succeeds. It blatantly wants to be taken seriously, which simply highlights its inadequacies. Fans of gore will be disappointed – any violence is implied more than revealed, which could be all the more terrifying were it not so bland. Finally, a shock reveal (less of a twist, more of a tacked-on afterthought) does little to improve the minimal story and, if possible, makes the psychopathic murderer even less intimidating than he originally was. Trackman is not the first gas-masked, pick-axed killer in the horror world and he probably won't be the last, but he may be the least scary.

Becky Bartlett

GORE IN THE STORE
REVIEWS BY FANS FOR FANS
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH