Trench 11 (2017)

I had never heard of this movie until one of my co-hosts at the Bloodbaths and Boomsticks podcast mentioned it. It is a movie set during World War I in the trenches of the Western Front. Sounded like a cool infected or zombie movie so I decided to jump right in.

The war is winding to a close and the Germans are doing everything possible to hide any of their nefarious experiments from the armies that are closing in on them. Unfortunately, some demolition charges in one of their underground labs didn’t go off so the madman in charge of the project is sent to finish the job. I say he is a madman because in spite of being told not to do so he still wants to use his work to try and win the war, or at least plunge the world into Armageddon! At the same time a group of British and American soldiers are on their way to the lab and recover the research and evidence of the experiments.

What were the experiments? There are these tiny worms that normally don’t infect human beings. Sort of like heartworms in a dog. They have been modified so that now humans can be infected and more importantly they have been modified to attack the brain turning people into rage monsters that want to kill everything in sight. Guess what else? The base is full of Germans who are infected and ready to murder the hell out of everyone they find. The two groups, Germans and American/British, meet up with much blood being spilled, and we have a happy ending… I think.

I like this movie. It isn’t perfect and at times the low budget does show, but for the most part it was a fun time. The characters are decent with the good guys being good and the bad guys being really bad. This isn’t one of those movies that will make you think too much about motivation or morality. The scientist, Reiner, is nuts and if the Germans can’t win the war is willing to destroy the world. The actor portraying him is named Robert Stadlober and he is great at playing the antagonist here. He chews up the scenery with glee and is a big part of what makes the movie entertaining. It is interesting that by the end the soldiers on both sides are co-operating in an effort to stop him. That was a nice twist.

Seriously these things freak me out!

The infected look pretty cool and are menacing enough to be satisfying creatures. The worms are easily passed so the threat of being spit or chewed on works sort of like a zombie flick. Though these infected will shred you up in a rage and not just take a few bites. This leads to some decent gore as faces are torn up, throats ripped, people get stabbed, and lots of shooting. We event get some torture as Reiner works over a prisoner, though sadly we just get to see the aftermath. But the best bit is an impromptu autopsy including chest cracking and fat slicing. They also have a cool running gag with the creepy little worms moving in and out of the infected that made my skin crawl.

For a low budget monster movie that is also set in the past they did a fantastic job bringing it to the screen. As I’ve already stated this isn’t a perfect movie. There are some pacing issues and I’m not too sure about the ending. But overall, I was very pleased. I recommend this one.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer