British feature The Bunker (2000) directed by Rob Green, has long been a favourite of mine, since I saw it at the 2001 London Frightfest. It's an outstanding slow burning atmospheric World War II Nazi ghost story in the same mould as the BBC Ghost Stories For Christmas, and stands up to many of the best 70's ghost-led US horror features.

After the limited theatrical run (there were only fifty 35mm prints created for theatrical run), the film was released on DVD by Salvation in 2003, and then nothing. No Blu-Ray, no 4K, no HD streaming, and only a handful of standard definition TV airings pre-2009.

While running my 35mm Movie Scans Blu-Ray Box-Set, this feature was always one I wanted to get scanned, but the film wasn't owned by any of the 35mm collectors I work with in Europe or the USA. In May 2023 on a shot to nothing, I contacted the director through Facebook to see if he would be interested in being involved in my 35mm scans project, and if had a print he could loan out for scanning. Unexpectedly, it turns out he was both was interested, and had a print. Around a month later on the 24th of June, he dropped his own 35mm print off to me. That was packed up and DHL'd straight off to the scanner I use in Germany, for a 4K scan.

While chatting to the director, I was given reasons for the lack of a HD release. While I can't go into specifics, there are both legal issues, and separately logistical issues around the unknown location of any of the film elements beyond a few 35mm prints. Back when the 2003 Salvation DVD was created, the option was given of having a high definition scan made, but this was passed on as it was more expensive, and HD was still in its infancy (the first retail Blu-Ray releases weren't until mid-2006). That standard definition BetaCam transfer is the source for every other version out there.

In 2016, Arrow Media attempted to assemble a release of the film, but were unable get the permissions & legal sign-offs needed. In addition, they wouldn't generally release a Blu-Ray sourced from a 35mm cinema print (they have released a handful, but they tend to be much older, and far rarer features where there is no possible alternative). Getting both the legal issues sorted, and the ultimate location of the film elements (assuming they still exist), may be something that can never be resolved, which would make an offical retail release very difficult.

As of writing, the director is still trying to work things out to get his feature a proper retail release, giving it the widespread worldwide attention it deserves. Either way, he's given his blessing for my fanmade release, along with loaning the feature print, trailer, and a number of other production elements enabling me to create the best set I can, featuring the first high definition version of The Bunker feature & trailer available anywhere in the world. The Bunker is among the shortlist of my all time favorite features, which has never been released on physical Blu-Ray in the US or UK. While most of the features have a HD alternative, some don't. You can read my list below, with clickable links for each entries' IMDB page; Of the twelve, four have no HD source, including The Bunker. Mute Witness is another title I would consider 35mm scanning, although I have no access to a 35mm print at the moment. The Parallax View (1974) would have also been on this list, but in writing this I've just discovered it was released un the US by Criterion in 2021.

I was sent the links to download the compressed previews of The Bunker on the 9th of July, which I roughly regraded and used to encode a complete version of the feature to show the director, and he was pretty pleased with the result. The director also came across a 35mm trailer which he mailed to me, arriving on the 11th of July, which was also sent off to the scanner the next day. The feature print, trailer and hard drive were all DHL'd back to me a few weeks later. The total scanning cost, including DHLs back and fourth, was £629.94. A 4K uncompressed DNG scan of a 90min feature might be around 800GB. The normal process is that once a scan is done, compressed 1080p preview encodes are uploaded so they can be checked through, and to see the quality of the print. If that's all fine, then the raw scan files are copied to a hard drive, and mailed back. You can see a gallery of screenshots below, from both the 1.81:1 open-matte version (left) and the cropped 1.85:1 (right). While the raw 35mm print frame was full 1.18:1 open-matte, the director's preferred aspect ratio to be cropped to 1.85:1. In order to preseve the full frame scan, I decided to make this a two-disc set. The first disc is more akin to a retail release, with the cropped feature, along with related extras. The second disc is in the same mould as my grindhouse cinema showing 35mm Movie Scans Blu-Ray Box-Set releases, with a number of 35mm scanned trailers & snipes playing before the fully open-matte feature. My double-sided Blu-Ray cover artwork design was quite different to the 2003 retail DVD, which I was never overly a fan of. The main skull image was actually generated by Bing AI Image Creator; the first time I've AI generated images in a project. It took around an hour of different word permutations and seventy attempts, to get the program to generate the sort of images I wanted, and the final version is a composite of four different slightly different images to get the exact look I was after. The back and reverse sides were populated with 35mm photo scans provided by the director. The remaining text was adapted from the 2003 retail DVD. Both discs are in UK PAL format. The features themselves play at a universal 24fps, but some of the extras are standard definition PAL. For any US fans, please make sure this won't be an issue for you. You can see the specs for all the items included across the set below. Click one for a screenshot gallery;


Disc 1 - PAL (2h 35m 20s)

• The Bunker 35mm 4K Feature transfer (2000 ~ 92m 06s, 1.85:1 matted / 1080p)
• The Bunker 35mm 4K Trailer transfer (2000 ~ 1m 48s, 1.85:1 matted / 1080p)
• The Bunker, The Making Of (2000 ~ 23m 21s, 4:3 / 576i)
• The Bunker - Deleted Scene 1 - The Ambush (2000 ~ 1m 48s, 4:3 / 576i)
• The Bunker - Deleted Scene 2 - The Deathtrap (2000 ~ 0m 57s, 4:3 / 576i)
• The Bunker - Extra Scene - Schenke's Story (2000 ~ 6m 02s, 4:3 / 576i)
• Rob Green's Early Shorts - The Black Cat (1995 ~ 17m 32s, 4:3 / 576i)
• Rob Green's Early Shorts - The Trick (1997 ~ 11m 44s, 4:3 / 576i)

Disc 2 - PAL (1h 40m 09s)

• Odeon Cinemas 35mm 2K UK Snipes transfers (1990s ~ 1m 56s, 1.85:1 matted / 1080p)
• The Shining 35mm 5K Teaser transfer (1980 ~ 1m 40s, 1.18:1 open-matte / 1080p)
• Hellraiser 35mm 5K Trailer transfer (1987 ~ 1m 35s, 1.66:1 matted / 1080p)
• The Fog 35mm 2K Teaser transfer (1980 ~ 0m 58s, 1.85:1 matted / 1080p)
• The Amityville Horror 35mm 5K Trailer transfer (1979 ~ 2m 01s, 1.18:1 open-matte / 1080p)
• The Bunker 35mm 4K Feature transfer (2000 ~ 92m 06s, 1.18:1 open-matte / 1080p)
• The Bunker 35mm 4K Trailer transfer (2000 ~ 1m 48s, 1.18:1 open-matte / 1080p)

Disc two has no menus (since there is nothing additional to choose from), it starts playing through the playlist in order as listed above, and stops at the end. The set is supplied in a clear double Blu-Ray case, with a laser-printed reversible cover & printed disc artwork. The discs are single layer BD-Rs. If you're interested in any of my fanmade projects, you can contact me via email at , or through the Rob's Nostalgia Projects Facebook page. Check out & 'like' that Facebook page to see the latest in-progress updates to any current projects, and check out my Wants List to see if you can assist me with any future projects or upgrades.