Daemon reviews The Tunnel

I don't understand this.

Ross Scott is a talented machinima director, no question. One of the best working today. He's got great comedic timing and his animation is unmatched. His series Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection are probably some of the best comedy machinima out there today. Therefore it makes perfect sense that his most recent installment in the funny buddy-cop comedy romp would be a suspenseful horror flick.

Don't get me wrong, I love The Tunnel. It's probably the closest a machinima has ever come to genuinely scaring me. Its atmosphere is uncannily good, and the citizen's appearance alone was astoundingly effective. But am I the only one who thinks that seeing this as a Civil Protection entry kinda contradicts the whole enterprise? Having the two cops still joke their way through the situation, while realistic as it might be, nevertheless undermines some of the tension. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

I mean, I guess you could argue that having them talk this way throughout the first half or so of the episode helps immerse the audience in about the same way that lounging around the house helped immerse the player in Heavy Rain, and hey, I can't argue with the results...but am I the only one who finds it odd? It's just such a complete tonal 180 from the usual show. It'd be like watching an episode of Seinfeld that features Kramer as a serial killer.

As far as the rest of the video goes, I can't really do much but say 'IT'S GOOD. GO WATCH IT' and then copypaste that a few hundred times. The cinematography, animation, sound design and music were all exemplary. The story itself I thought kinda ended too soon and didn't really bring closure to anything. We never do really figure out why half of the things we saw happen...happen. Like, if the citizen didn't die, then whose body was that in the tunnel? Why was the citizen crazy? what were all those critters at the end and did they have something to do with the crazy citizen? None of it is ever explained, which is a shame because the story itself was really engaging and immersing and the ending we get is a bit of a cop-out. I'd love to have known what was going on in there, but I guess part of horror is leaving things to the imagination, right?

Once you get over the initial shock of Civil Protection going from buddy cop comedy to slow-burning nightmare fuel the experience itself is really good. So if any of you were actually on the fence on seeing Ross Scott's latest machinima, and actually care about my thoughts on its overall quality, then I'd say it's definitely worth a look.