Girl in the Bunker (2018) Reviews

• Great for a Lifetime movie

  mgconlan-12018-06-06

  Two nights ago I watched a Lifetime movie that's one of the best things I've ever seen on that network: "Girl in the Bunker," written and directed by Stephen Kemp and telling the true story of Elizabeth Shoaf (Julia Lalonde), who at age 14 in the rural community of Lugoff, South Carolina (never heard of it? Neither had I) was kidnapped and held for 10 days in an underground bunker on private property. Her abductor, Vinson Filyaw (Henry Thomas), called himself "Benson" after the family that owned the property he was squatting on, lived in a trailer under which was a secret door connecting him to the bunker he'd dug, and lured Lizzie (her nickname, though only her parents and her brother called her that - a clue that became important in the story) into his clutches by posing as a police officer who had arrested her younger brother on marijuana charges. The promos for this movie made it seem like a titillating exploitation piece on the order of previous Lifetime excursions into stories (sometimes derived from real ones) of women being kidnapped and held as sex slaves for months or even years, including "Cleveland Abduction" and Kemp's previous "Girl in the Box", etc. - but as it turned out this was considerably better than their norm. Part of the superiority is that Elizabeth Shoaf (played in the film by Julia Lalonde) was only held for 10 days - though the word "only" seems like being thankful for infinitesimally small mercies - and that, though just 14, she had the presence of mind to fight back against her attacker through strategy and guile instead of openly resisting him. Kemp maintains the suspense by cutting back and forth between Elizabeth's ordeal and the increasing anxiety of her parents, Don (Stephen Park) and Madeline (Moira Kelly), and her brother Bobby (Dimitri Komocsi), and their frantic efforts to search for her and to keep the doofuses on the local police force interested in continuing the search. One of the towering ironies of this story is that in this relatively tight-knit rural community the hiding place where Vinson is keeping Elizabeth is just a short distance from her home, and through much of the search Vinson can hear the police patrolling the property - including flying helicopters over it - and can lord it over Elizabeth how the authorities keep missing them. Though I still think Emma Donoghue's novel "Room" and the film made from it (with Donoghue writing the script and Lenny Abrahamson directing) are the best works made about this situation - at least partly because Donoghue was writing fiction and thereby wasn't trapped by the events of the actual story - "Girl in the Bunker" is quite a good movie, very far above the Lifetime norm and with a writer/director skilled enough at both jobs he keeps Elizabeth's peril front and center in the story without exploiting it for the obvious titillation. "Girl in the Bunker" has some faults, and one of the most annoying ones is how similar the leading male characters look: Henry Thomas, Stephen Park (playing Elizabeth's dad) and Jeff Clarke (as one of the police officers involved in the search) are all the same "type" - thin, sandy-haired, attractive without being drop-dead gorgeous or genuinely sexy - that when Clarke appeared as one of the cops at first I thought he was Vinson and Elizabeth had been kidnapped by a genuine police officer who was also playing these sadistic sex games on the side, and involving himself in the investigation to steer his colleagues away from where she really was. Also, Lifetime's decision to show the film in a so-called "special edition" in which, during the commercial breaks, we got brief interview segments from the real Elizabeth, Don and Madeline Shoaf which affirmed the basic accuracy of the story but also let us know that, as usual, the filmmakers had cast the roles with considerably more attractive people than their real-life prototypes. Nonetheless, "Girl in the Bunker" is a well-done thriller and makes me hopeful Stephen Kemp can break free of the TV-movie ghetto and make some theatrical features - he's no Alfred Hitchcock but he's a damned sight better than a lot of the wanna-be Hitchcocks out there, some of whom have got to make theatrical features with "A"-list stars.

• Chilling and Emotional

  RyanCallawaySF2018-06-05

  A well done movie that didn't stray far from the true events it was based on. It's essentially the story of a very intelligent 14 year old girl who is able to escape a kidnapper in large part due to her own efforts and a clever ploy by the police. There were strong performances all around, especially by the actress portraying Elizabeth Shoaf and her kidnapper. Direction and music were spot on, with palpable tension throughout most of the film and a strong emotional undercurrent. This is one of Lifetime's best and an all around excellent film.

• Imprisonment with pedophile stalker

  nijazmuratovic2019-05-08

  This is about ignorance for bad people around us. If we ignore them, they may damage us. It's police task to do it, but everybody should be more or less be responsible for what happens around him, at least where they live. Lesson is that it is dangerous to live ignorant life and ignore even small warnings we may notice in neighborhood. Movie is filled with fear, worry, hope, expectation, excitement, mystery, seek and hide. There is positive ending that brings us feeling of salvation and freedom. Had this movie just a bit more details, it could be worth 10 stars.

• A Teen-Ager Outwitting Her Abductor

  Desertman842018-10-24

  I have been a Moira Kelly fan for more than 2 decades now. I was excited that she was going to appear in another Lifetime TV Movie entitled,"A Girl In A Bunker". At first, my only objective was to watch her in this movie and never really cared for the story. But to my surprise, I saw a good Lifetime TV movie. "A Girl In A Bunker" is the true story of a 14-year-old Elizabeth Shoaf,who was abducted by an unemployed 36-year old construction worker and a mentally abnormal as well as a sexual predator,Vinson Filyaw. It stars Julia Lalonde as Elizabeth,Henry Thomas, the famous child star back in the 80's who did "E.T" playing the role of Elliot, and Moira Kelly. It tells the ordeal of Elizabeth under a mentally deranged person - Vinshaw Filyaw - who abducted her for 10 days from the first day when he was kidnapped her and placed her in a bunker until the tenth day when Elizabeth was able to outwit her abductor that allowed her to escape via texting her mother on her whereabouts as her parents sought the help of the authorities to look for her. The acting was alright especially from Lalonde and Thomas as well as Kelly.Too bad that this is a TV movie so the ordeal that a 14-year-old Elizabeth was not fully shown particularly how she was raped twice and how fully mentally deranged is Vinshaw is as far as being a sexual predator is concerned. Despite the fact that it lacks tension,it was still a pleasure to see this movie as it presents to us the true story of Elizabeth's ordeal and how she was able to outwit Vinshaw as well as how she rebuilt her life from this ordeal that happened back in 2006 - 12 years ago - knowing that she now currently works as a Dental Assistant. Added to that, we also see what happened to Vinshaw,who was sentenced for 421 years in prison without the possibility of a parole. Overall,it is still a great Lifetime TV movie. No question about it.

• Pedo

  Montayj2019-04-14

  The moral of a movie shown on Lifetime, 1st let's try to make R. Kelley the face of pedophilia while we promote our own movie about pedophilia. Movie should be banned for it's creepiness. This is why I stopped watching Lifetime a year ago because too many of their movies are starting to have that sick underlying message. Bored yesterday and messed up and put it on that horrible channel just to witness this nonsense.