Set during the waning days of World War II, Burial tells the fictional story of a small band of Russian soldiers tasked with delivering the crated remains of Hitler back to Stalin in Russia.
The Eastern Front is rarely portrayed onscreen, even though during WWII, the Russian Army sacrificed millions and liberated scores of concentration camps. In addition to the military milestones achieved by the Russian Army, it included women in combat on the front lines. Women like the legendary sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko who killed 309 Nazis during the war. In a desperate bid to counter the victorious Russian Army steamrolling across its Axis lines, Adolph Hitler encouraged citizens of all ages and retired soldiers to take up arms against the Russian Troops. Made up of primarily untrained civilians, these armed resistance forces were nicknamed Werewolves. Drawn from folklore and the Nazis’ obsession with the occult, these werewolves were mainly an existential threat but occasionally an actual threat to the allied forces.
“War is Hell,” so it is surprising there have not been more horrors touching on military history or violent conflicts. That horror-war genre mashup is the pillar on which “Burial” rests is flimsy at best. Being released by the consistently good IFC Midnight channel, expectations were high, but writer/director Ben Parker fails to deliver any scares or sensational thrills.
“Burial” begins in 1991, the Soviet Union has collapsed, and the elderly Anna (Harriet Walter) catches an intruder attempting to break in. After subduing the burglar and realizing he wants more than her money or jewels, Anna begins telling him a story that flashes back to Berlin in 1945. In the conquered German city, Brana (Charlotte Vega), along with a small squad of soldiers, is tasked with transporting Hitler’s remains back to Stalin in Russia. The squad’s leader Ilyasov is useless and ineffectively commands, Tor (Barry Ward) is a kind and thoughtful soldier, and the rest of the unit is simply cannon fodder.
Upon arriving in a small Polish village tucked away in the forest, Brana and her squad come under attack. The locals are mostly made up of werewolves who employ guerrilla tactics, one of the most interesting being burning psychedelic mushrooms that make the Russian squad experience gnarly hallucinations. Eventually, Brana and her unit escape their werewolf attackers and meet Lukasz (Tom Felton), a villager who hates the Nazis and just wants to help. Poor Tom Felton cannot get a decent role, post-Harry Potter. Finally, the main villain is a Nazi captain whose performance touches on a sinister tongue-in-cheek camp, but sadly, the actor does not entirely go for broke.
Parker’s screenplay mostly suffers from too much exposition. The overabundance of dialogue explaining everything onscreen displays a lack of faith in his audience and his film. The historical period does deserve a fair amount of background, but there are more clever ways to show and tell, although the film’s strongest scene was a nightmare showing Hitler’s secret bunker. Cinematographer Rein Kotov’s camerawork is solid enough, but some night shots lack dimension. And a somewhat exciting firefight occurs at the film’s climax, but it’s too little, too late. Aside from some solid makeup effects and gore, “Burial” is much too tame and dull for working within both war and horror genres.
In Select Theaters and On-Demand Friday, September 2nd
