VISUAL REVIEW #4

For as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with the Sci-Fi genre. I absolutely love space and science and I am so fascinated by the stories within the genre. So, when we had to choose a short film to watch and critique, I immediately navigated to the Sci-Fi category to find a short film. I wound up finding the short film, Tunnelen (The Tunnel), a short film written and directed by André Øvredal, a Norweigan filmmaker. The story is very simple but very intricate. The story is set in a future dystopian world where population control is vital to the survival of the human race. The film begins with a family on their way back from a day under the sun at the beach. The family sits in the car full of angst as they wait for their turn to enter through the massive tunnel gates. The tunnel gates are gigantic and stand hundreds of feet tall. They are in a queue of hundreds of cars with hundreds of people around them. The tunnel is described by the family as having closed and opened at least five times that day, already hinting at a possibility for why the tunnel looks so morbid and dark. The way this was filmed was really great. The opening scene is a pair of feet covered in sand which then pans to two anxious parents in the front seat of the car. At the same time that the parents are conversing with their daughter, attempting to keep her distracted and calm from the fear of their fate, the son is taking part in his own story. As the son looks out of the window, he catches the eye of a girl in the car next to them and is enamored by her. The traffic queue is completely backed up and so the son has the opportunity to exit the car and meet the girl. When the traffic finally begins to move again the family return to their original position in the car and continues their journey, praying that the tunnels won't close. At this point, we as viewers still know the tunnel is obviously bad and that the main desire of everyone in the cars is to make it through to the other side. However, we still don’t know what exactly happens inside. The filming of the scenes is done in a way that shows how obvious the fear and anxiety is in the characters. As the family nears the tunnel, the facial expressions of the family make it clear that whats to come will either be good or bad. The family enters the tunnel and the lighting of the filming becomes more spooky. This is when the music really starts to pick up and match the intensity of the visuals on the screen. As the end of the tunnel nears, the family begins to look relieved, however, a traffic jam up ahead slows the process and they ultimately begin to panic as they realize they may not make it out quick enough. The music begins to intensify for what feels like longer than just a minute. The family barely nears  the end of the tunnel when the terrifying sound of the gate rings out. At this point, the music nears the climax and the family cowers in fear. The gates slam shut behind them and slowly they realize that they survived. As the tunnel opens, you realize that all of the cars that were caught behind the gate are gone, meaning they were killed, as a means of population control. As the family graciously exhales and smile at each other, the film closes with the son turning to look at the empty tunnel, as he realizes that the girl he fell in love with and spoke too for five seconds is now gone, forever. One last thing I have to point out here in the critique is the way the director combined visuals with sounds. For instance, more than once, we could hear the family arguing inside the car but then when it showed us the perspective from outside the car looking in, we could only hear the harsh industrial sounds in the background. All we could see when this was done was mouths moving angrily or kindly. I thought it was a great way to make you feel ass though you were actually in the film itself, it really added to sensory effects.

​

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2020/09/10/tunnelen-the-tunnel/