One of the most horrible scenarios that can go through a person’s mind is to be kidnapped by a madman and held in some basement dungeon year after year. This may only be a nightmare for most people but for one young woman it was all too real. ‘Dungeon Girl’, the latest film by Ulli Lommel is the account of a real life case where a girl in Austria was held captive for over eight years before managing to escape. Natascha Kampusch, the real victim, was only ten years old when she was adducted by Wolfgang Priklopil. What happened to her is what parents tell their children to scary them into being safe. What makes this story so poignant is there is nothing that anyone could have done to prevent it from happening. Natascha was just walking to school like she did so many mornings before. She was pulled off the street into a van and sped off; away from her parents, her friends and any chance at a normal life. For eight years she was held in a small cellar beneath Priklopil's garage. Over time he would allow her to spend part of the day above ground but the nights were always in the dark of her dungeon. There were even reports that at one point she took a trip with her captor. Many will point to the noted Stockholm syndrome where the captive begins to identify with the captor. He could have been that or the threats of a gun and stories that the windows and doors being booby trapped with explosives that kept the girl so compliant for so long. The real story ended when Natasha managed to get away from the man and run to safety. This was a case that hit the news all over the world. It was only a matter of time before this story would come to the screen or in the case of those of us in the States, DVD.

The film was written and directed by Ulli Lommel. He is well known for a career of over thirty years making low budget horror films. While many dismiss his works as bad horror movies but he is a creative man who has found his niche in the art of cinema. A large percentage of his flicks are based on true stories as is the case here. He typically goes for some of the most heinous and disturbed serial killers that society has ever seen. Included in his list of subjects are such notorious cases as The Black Dahlia, The Green River Killer, The Zodiac Killer and more recently BTK. Along the way in his career he has taken side trips into plots concerning zombies, aliens and cannibalism. Let’s just say that no one has ever described any of his films as the feel good movie of the season. Lommel seems to be fascinated with the darkest aspects of the human psyche and the lowest depths of behavior. For those are able to appreciate his work Lommel is a able director. He frequently takes on such dark subjects that the audience is given a glimpse at the worse examples of humanity. He does so with a certain style that is unmistakable. At times you can just about forget that you are watching a dramatization and think it is a documentary. Most people are turned off by the realism he strives for. At times it would have benefited the film if it wasn’t so gritty and explicit. Lommel has little concern for the sensibilities of his audience; he wants to show mankind at their worse. In his films on serial killers as well as this one the antagonist comes across as a normal looking man; one you wouldn’t think twice about if you passed him in the street. This is the true horror of the situations. There is no way to tell that such monsters might be living right down the street. Just remember that like many movies of this ilk it is loosely based on the real story. Also, as is the case most of the times just telling the facts would have made for a more gripping film.

The film opens with a shot of a young woman’s face (Wendi Jean Linn). Her voice over explains that in the dark all she could hear was the ticking of a clock. The video is grainy, dim and barely in focus. Scenes of a woman outdoors tending to a caldron come to mind as she remembers a man leaning in close to her asking if she was a witch. This is a disjointed start to the film that does little to draw the audience into the coming story. All the girl has now are the constant dreams and the voices in her head. Her former life was slipping away. The girl wonders if all that has happened to her was her fault. She holds on to the idea that she was the victim and being in her dungeon was not because of anything she may have done. There are more disjointed shots of the man (Günther Ziegler) molesting a doll and the girl lying alone in the tight space she has to survive. The man keeps telling her that all women are witches. Obviously he is not exactly wrapped too tightly. The girl remembers her name, Schatze Melnick, and that she is eighteen years old. She remembers the date she was adducted and six years have past. Most of the film is narrated by Gwen Trevathan with very little actual dialogue. The point of view is from the girl presented as a mental diary of what has happened to her. She goes into how her life should have been. She was supposed to have grown up in the country far away from the terrors that became her daily life. The black and white flashbacks dominate the film. The color scenes of the present show too many shots of the girl staring into a mirror. This is just a little too existential for a film like this. We get to see the man stalking the preteen girl from out side her house. She could see him looking in but doesn’t tell anyone. She became as obsessed with him as he was with her. We get more cuts between flashbacks and the present with the man feeding her in the little dungeon room he made for her. Over a prolonged amount of time the details of the kidnapping and imprisonment become somewhat clear.

The movie plods along with the exposition dealt out too slowly to get and keep the interest of the audience. Moving to more of a straight forward thriller would have served better than the pseudo documentary format actually employed. We can understand the terror of the girl involved but the sense of immediacy is missing, especially in the crucial beginning of the film. The film does get moving but by then it was too late to save the movie. There is a claustrophobic feel to the film that helps but not enough. Lommel is just not able to fully convey the plight of the young woman in such a dire circumstance. There is the internal monologue that becomes annoying after awhile that gives some of the emotional struggle of the girl. She has come to depend on the man so long that it is at one point difficult for her to make here break. More was needed to fill out this psychological aspect of the story.

The DVD is released by Lion’s Gate. They are great for little out of the way films from the independent film world. This distributor brings these smaller films to a much wider audience than they normally would have. In this particular case the film my not be for anyone but fans of Lommel will enjoy it.