Dungeon Girl (2008) (V)

Director:

Ulli Lommel

Writer:

Ulli Lommel (written by)

Release Date:

8 July 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Surrogate Father | Stockholm Syndrome | Childhood Memory | Nightmare | Cell

Cast

Wendi Jean Linn	...	Schatzy Melnick
Gwen Trevathan	...	Narrator (voice)
Günther Ziegler	...	The Kidnapper (as Gunter Ziegle)
Nola Roeper	...	The Mother
Marcia James
Bud Watson	...	The Stepfather
Christian Behm	...	T.V. Newscaster
Hank Gordon
Ulli Lommel	...	Uncle Henry / TV Pastor
Stacey Worth
Francoise Kaane	...	Uncle Henry's Girlfriend
Darrin McDuff
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Suzanne Love	...	Jenny Scanlon (Devonsville Terror) (archive footage)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, nudity and some violent images.

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Australia:R | Australia:R (2008) | Finland:K-18 (self applied)

Filming Locations:

Big Bear, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Company:

Hollywood House of Horror

Trivia:

Loosely based upon a true kidnapping case from Austria.

Movie Connections:

References Pickup (1951)

Not Horror But Drama

Dungeon Girl (2008)

** (out of 4)

My never ending parade of German director Ulli Lommel's "real life" movies continues with this one, which steps away from the horror genre and enters the drama category. This one tells a story that happened in Austria as a young girl was kidnapped and held hostage by a man for nearly six years. The entire running time centers on voiceovers as the girl tells her feelings for her parents, her life before the abduction and for her kidnapper known only as The Stranger. Again, I've seen all of Lommel's "real life" movies that have been released so far and this one here took me by a pleasant surprise. Not that I'd ever sit through the thing again but at least Lommel tried something different and didn't just deliver the same old garbage. I think what really helps this film is Wendi Jean Linn as the girl and Gunther Ziegler as The Stranger. We really don't get to see them "act" since most of the film is structured around voiceovers but this is beneficial since the majority of Lommel's recent films have been even worse due to the bad acting. Here, they at least look the parts well and the narration by Gwen Trevathan is really good. The film is way too slow and too much stuff is repeated for it to be considered a marginally good film. I'm really not sure what Lommel's obsession is with having a character look into the camera, ask questions and then constantly reuse this footage. Also, the running time of 81 minutes is the norm for his recent films but he might want to consider cutting them down to a hour or less. This is how "B" and "Z" movies were back in the day so he might want to revisit that. With that said, this is still a weak film but it's a lot better than anything the director's have given us over the past decade but then again, that's not saying too much.