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Indie horror companies seem to be popping up all over the place… some, regrettably, have chosen to go the After Dark route. One of these up and coming companies is Ghost House Underground, which has assembled a slate of eight flicks for your benefit… or for the benefit of anyone that likes poorly tailored horror flicks. Trackman is the third Ghost House flick that I have checked out, and thankfully, it isn’t anywhere near as abysmal as Brotherhood of Blood and No Man’s Land: Rise of the Reeker were. That probably has something to do with the fact that the film comes from Russia, which means it was probably put together with money scavenged from the Russian mafia… just a theory.

The film is standard issue horror stuff, which only feels original because it all takes place in Russian, which is sort of a novelty. Trackman follows a group of dumbass bank robbers as they flee inside a maze of abandoned train tracks to escape the cops. Armed with a couple of guns, two worthless female hostages, and a supercop hostage, they attempt to find their way out of the maze of tunnels before they catch a cold from being soaked by all the dripping water. Everything is going fine until a dude in a gas mask swinging a pickaxe starts murdering the fuck out of people. Guy in a mask wielding a pickaxe? Yeah, it’s a little like My Bloody Valentine, but not as cheesily Canadian.

The film actually has some pretty solid direction and while Igor Shavlak may spend a little too much time watching puddles and dripping water, he does create a some solid atmosphere in a film that’s about as cookie-cutter as they come. The lighting in the film is exceptional and the only place Shavlak seems to drop the ball is during some of the gore scenes… but that’s a pretty big flaw, considering this is a horror movie that preys on people’s joy for gory deaths. There are some nice gory moments done with style, but the straightforward kills lack energy.

The writing in the film is also garbage. The thought of some dude being able to sneak up on someone in long puddle-filled tunnels is absolutely ridiculous. There are so many scenes of characters looking around for the killer, while never looking behind them, that is becomes almost ridiculous. Add to that the fact that the killer can sneak up on people with machine guns and kill them with one blow from his pickaxe and you’ve got a recipe for a superhuman killer. I envy his magic puddle walking abilities.

Trackman is a solid flick that most slasher lovers will enjoy. This isn’t good enough to become a franchise, but it’s a solid one-shot slasher flick that is filled with swear words, eyeball harvesting, and a nice backstory about Chernobyl babies.

Final Synopsis: Get a tunnel and a cinematographer and you can make this movie for 15 G’s. There’s nothing fresh here… but if you like more of the same, you can’t go wrong with Trackman.

Points Lost: -1 for clichéd writing, -1 for the killer’s magic powers, -1 for the director spending too much time filming tunnels and dripping water, -1 for weak death scenes here and there

Lesson Learned: Don’t go into abandoned tunnels.

Burning Question: Why is this guy collecting eyeballs? And where did he get a tailor-made eyeball removal implement?

Trackman
6/10

Tags: 2007, european, european horror, foreign, foreign horror, foreign movie, ghost house underground, horror, horror movie, igor shavlak, latest movie reviews, recent2, russian, russian horror, slasher