Fatal Rescue - DVD

Film: The marriage of Jacob (Steve Guttenberg) and Emilie Jones (Aislinn Sands) is in ruins. Even in front of their common son Toby (Nicolas Landmann-Burghardt), they can maintain the image of an ideal family. But a misfortune brings the couple closer together again: while playing in the woods, Toby falls into an old manhole that gradually fills with water. A race against time begins, with Jacob and Emilie getting help from rescue service friend Mike Garner (Dominic Rickhards). But getting the boy out of the hole in the ground proves to be more difficult than anticipated, especially since there is a secret resting in the old shaft that must not be allowed to surface under any circumstances - even if it could cost little Toby his life.

Like the DVD premiere "Perfect Hideout" and the theatrical thriller "Iron Doors", director Stephen Manuel ("The Clown", "Lexx") also shot "Fatal Rescue" on a minimal budget in a few days in the outskirts of Berlin, as well as in an old swimming pool in the capital, where the hole in the ground was reconstructed with simple but effective means, so that it could easily be filled with water. Even if Manuel with Steve Guttenberg ("Police Academy") and the two Englishmen Aislinn Sands and Dominic Rickhards quite experienced actors to the side, so the film suffers in many places visibly from the less than perfect prerequisites of its creation.

So it becomes clear again and again that simply the time was missing to shoot several takes of different scenes, so that some moment just seems a bit bumpy and literally quickly cranked down. On top of that, the actors don't exactly have the best dialogue put in their mouths and they keep getting lost in numerous clichés. On the other hand, "Fatal Rescue" shows that the director, who was born in Ireland and grew up in the Black Forest, loves what he does. He learned his craft by making several short films and by filming for the "Harald Schmidt Show". For instance, he gives voice to his penchant for horror films with a tiny homage to "Dance of the Devils"and also manages some really good-looking shots.

But overall, the film never manages to rise above the level of a B-movie. Stilted dialogues, somewhat wooden acting, among which especially child actor Nicolas Landmann-Burghardt doesn't really shine, and a sometimes too thickly applied dramaturgy prevent the film from living up to the potential behind the basic idea inspired by true events. With a little more time and money "Fatal Rescue" certainly could have become a decent drama. As it is, however, the whole thing is a well-intentioned but arguably cheap-looking little film that only offers something like suspense and good entertainment in a few moments.

Picture + Sound: The picture is clean, though some weaknesses in the overall sharpness can be discerned here and there. In addition, some moments seem a bit washed out, and smaller details are often inadequately represented. The audio remains largely understated, with ambient noise and small sound effects interspersed here and there only breaking up the tonal action. For a small production like this quite alright.

Extras: Stephen Manuel has recorded an audio commentary to his film, which is particularly worth listening to in the first few minutes. Because here the director delights with a refreshing openness, calls his film with conviction a B-movie and tells how the film had to be created with few resources in a short time and what sacrifices you have to make as a director under such conditions. The more the film progresses, the longer the pauses in the commentary become. Only towards the end Manuel provides some interesting details about the shooting.

In addition to the commentary, the DVD has a short making of to offer, but its presentation is absolutely disastrous. Because the short look behind the scenes is, click on the menu item, merely integrated as a small window in the bonus menu, with the frame around the image taking up much more space than the image section with the making of itself. A trailer show closes out the meager bonus material.

Conclusion: "Fatal Rescue" is a B-movie with potential. However, this can only unfold properly in a few moments, which is why the film rather disappoints under the cut. The DVD is technically on the budget of the film corresponding decent level, in the bonus material can actually only entertain the audio commentary of the director

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp