Deathwatch

Deathwatch is a 2002 horror war film written and directed by M. J. Bassett, and starring Jamie Bell, Laurence Fox, Kris Marshall, Matthew Rhys and Andy Serkis. A lost squad of British soldiers in World War I take shelter in an abandoned enemy trench, but it proves to be no refuge as the men find themselves hunted by unseen evils. Plot During World War I, soldiers of the British 5th Battalion's White Company under Cpt. Jennings charge a German trench as part of a larger assault. The young Pvt. Charlie Shakespeare initially refuses, but is coaxed along by Sgt. Tate. Many soldiers fall to machine-gun fire or artillery and the unit becomes lost in the fog. After walking for hours, carrying Pvt. Colin Chevasse, now paraplegic, the unit comes across a maze-like network of trenches. There they find three terrified Germans, who ignore Private Willie McNess's cries for surrender in apparent fear of something further down the trenches. Pvt. Thomas Quinn shoots and kills one, another flees, while the third, Friedrich, surrenders. Convinced they have broken through the enemy lines, the soldiers decide to secure the trenches. They explore and find ominous signs: rotting bodies with protruding barbed wire and German bayonets litter the ground. Compasses and watches also have stopped working. While detonating charges to close off some passages, they hear a demon-like growl and blood pours from the mud. Later, Pvt. Jack Hawkstone is ambushed by the second German hiding in the mud. Jack and Pvt. Barry Starinski wound and subdue him, but Thomas executes him with a pistol and scalps him despite Tate's interference. Attempts to contact command via radio reveal White Company was thought to have been obliterated during the assault before communications are lost.