Urban Explorer

Urban Explorer (or Urban Explorers, or Urbex, or The Depraved) is what you call a genuine genre film. The premise isn't exactly mind-blowing (a group of youngsters coming together to explore some underground tunnels), but the setting (nazi strongholds underneath modern-day Berlin) is cool and Fetscher turns out to be a pretty skilled director for this type of thing. And once inside the tunnels the film does hold a few neat twists as it tries to sidestep many of the genre's pitfalls.

While a Creep-like story develops beneath Berlin, Fetscher sets out to turn around some of the more popular clichés. Case in point a classic scene where the adversary is down while still grasping a crucial item for the main character's escape. Fetscher builds up the tension, but the release never follows. Not even when the camera cuts to a fleeing hero. He uses these moments to good effect, especially when a few scenes later, when the audience's guard is finally down, he does manage a successful scare.

It's moments like these that turn Urban Explorer into a pretty fun horror flick. Genre fans will find nothing new here, but Stiglmeier shines as the film's bad guy and Fetscher is smart enough to play with the expectations of his audience while keeping faithful to popular genre elements. People who aren't taken with the horror genre will find Fetscher's handiwork a bit too subtle to notice, but for dedicated horror fans Urban Explorer is a remarkably fun and amusing little genre film.