Year:  2021

Director:  Adrian Nugent

Release:  November 4, 5, 2022

Running time: 96 minutes

Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Enzo Tedeschi, Julian Harvey, Carlo Ledesma. Bel Delia, Luke Arnold, Kiah Roche-Turner, Julie Kalceff, Andrew Mackie, Goran D. Kleut

Intro:
... paints the picture of a group of artists who went in prepared for all eventualities, except for when they eventually unleashed The Tunnel on to the world.

Directed by Carlo Ledesma (Sunod) and written by Julian Harvey (My Year of Living Mindfully) and Enzo Tedeschi, 2011’s The Tunnel is a homegrown horror that this year celebrates 10 years of scaring the bejesus out of people. Framed as a documentary about a bunch of murders beneath the heart of Sydney, the film is part The Descent, part The Last Broadcast. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s definitely worth a spin in the old Blu-ray player.

What made The Tunnel capture the attention of not just horror fans, but the mainstream Aussie press was how its creators financed and distributed the film. Its $135k budget was achieved by Harvey and Tedeschi – who also took on the role of producers – pre-selling individual frames at a dollar a pop. When it came time for release, The Tunnel made waves by being the first Australian film to be distributed legally through BitTorrent. Yes, that BitTorrent. The one your mother warned you about.

The Other Side of Darkness revisits the production of the film from Harvey and Tedeschi’s first brainstorming session right through its eventual release in a physical format. Director Adrian Nugent is offered an unfiltered look behind the curtain via interviews with The Tunnel’s main players as well as exhaustive behind the scenes footage. See the crew realise that their next backdrop is an asbestos playground! See actor Goran D. Kleut, who plays the film’s antagonist, failing to not look scary even when he’s joking around! Watch as Julia Gillard becomes an unwitting extra in a moment the crew looks back on, perhaps with a touch of glee, as a shocking lack of security. Nugent paints the picture of a group of artists who went in prepared for all eventualities, except for when they eventually unleashed The Tunnel on to the world.

Having promised those who had crowdfunded the film that it would be distributed freely to everyone, Harvey and Tedeschi found themselves in a tricky situation where they had a distributor who was unsurprisingly nervous about legal downloading. Afterall, at that time, piracy had reportedly cost Australia $1.37 billion in lost revenue. Anyone would be cautious getting in bed with your enemy. This is by far the meatiest part of the documentary, as everyone involved tries to keep their head above unchartered waters. You can’t help but cheer the producers on, even when sobering reality comes in the shape of warehouses filled with unsold DVDs, all from cancelled orders by stores getting cold feet.

Truth be told, perhaps The Tunnel hasn’t made the impact commercially in the same way The Blair Witch Project did. However, the numerous cameos from other Aussie directors, including Kiah Roche-Turner (Wyrmwood franchise), highlight the theme of the documentary: Seize every opportunity with both hands and never be afraid to actually reinvent the wheel once in a while.

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