1917.

• Author: Boehm, Eric

Sam Mendes' 1917 is a war film, yes, but also a horror film in the truest sense of the word. Death lurks behind every corner: arbitrary, horrific, and unavoidable.

The movie follows--quite literally, since it is shot and edited to appear as a single, uncut take--two young British soldiers (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) tasked with delivering a critical message. Ten miles away, some 16,000 of their countrymen are about to launch an offensive against what appears to be a retreating German army. But new intelligence shows they will actually be charging toward new, unassailable fortifications--what World War I buffs will recognize as the Hindenburg Line. With the clock ticking, the two boys set off across no man's land and through the abandoned German trenches to stop an impending slaughter.

What follows is...