The Bunker is a psychological thriller/horror film which revolves around the kidnap of a congressman's daughter. Julia, better known as Jewel to her friends and family, is a teenage runaway who is unwilling to live within the rules and boundaries set by her parents. She has run away once before, and her father's connections have kept that quiet. This time, however, an election cycle is about to begin and the scandal of a runaway daughter has congressman Robert Jennings desperate. Desperate enough to have half the NYPD out quietly looking for his daughter, and desperate enough to pay privately to have her found and brought back home. The problem for those looking for her, though, is that she is no longer on the streets, and is instead imprisoned in an underground bunker, having been kidnapped by a sadistic serial murderer. Jewel knows exactly how much longer she has left to live, but will it be long enough for anybody to find her?
In early 2001, while friend, fellow comic book stalwart and director Hart D. Fisher was talking about moving out of comic books and full-time into filmmaking, Joe Monks was also toying with the idea. He had a few ideas for shorts, including a sketchy one about a congressman's wild child daughter being kidnapped off the streets while her father pulled out all the stops to find her before she turned his reelection campaign into a scandal. So began the formation of The Bunker--destined not to be Monks' first screenplay put into production, but his second.
During 2001 and early 2002, while Monks fought a losing battle with diabetic retinopathy (it would eventually blind the comic book author and would-be filmmaker), Monks returned on and off to the story, adding details; fleshing out the characters; developing the plot line, while trying to keep his day job between invasive eye surgeries and lengthy recovery periods. By April of 2002, when Monks both lost his job and his failing eyesight, the film project had been entirely shifted to the back burner. Monks shifted gears to focus his energies on a long-delayed horror anthology of short stories, Stuff Out'a My Head, which he had been discussing with legendary comic book illustrator Bernie Wrightson, a frequent Stephen King collaborator. In December of 2002, Stuff Out'a My Head was released.
In early 2003, Monks got a late-night call from Fisher, with Fisher asking the author to throw together some synopsis for short films. Fisher had an investor from Japan seeking to make a television pilot for the Asian market, and was soliciting ideas. Among the concepts pitched was the short story, Chance Meeting, from the Stuff Out'a My Head anthology. The investors, Bunkasha Publishing and DK Publishing bit, and Chance Meeting was green-lighted for production.
By the time Chance Meeting--penned by Monks and polished by Fisher--screened at the New York City Film Festival in October, 2003, Monks was again toying with "that kidnap story,"while also juggling duties on writing and publishing the new Zacherley's Midnite Terrors comic and editing the critically acclaimed anthology Sex Crimes. "That kidnap story" (there was never a working title until the script was finished)finally stood front and center. With one film credit in the bank, Monks was busy writing something else Fisher could direct, the sooner the better to capitalize on the positive reviews garnered at the NYC Horror Film Festival.
In 2004, after the investors had made the decision to market the Chance Meeting property as a direct-market DVD instead of a TV pilot, Monks and Fisher, who retained worldwide rights, decided to add a wraparound sequence and market the property under the title: Flowers on the Razorwire, which had been a horror comic book anthology Fisher had published in the 1990s. The goal was to create a Tales From The Crypt style horror anthology for a cable television network looking to cash in on the rising popularity of horror. Monks, who had missed the opportunity to cameo in the short as a blind character due to conflicts in his convention schedule and Fisher's shooting schedule, was cast by Fisher to star in the wraparound--playing a sighted character. By July, the first Flowers on the Razorwire DVDs hit specialty video and comic book shops around the country, and Monks was already looking ahead, to finishing the script for his next short.
With Fisher's film editing business picking up steam and the director's sights on another feature and some music videos, the idea of directing the new short himself began to gain traction. After researching it, Monks could find no account of a blind director, even after doing some fact-checking with the vaunted Hollywood Reporter. Handed a deck of 52 blind cards and some jokers by life, Monks was determined to play some. In late 2004 the first draft of the script was complete, and Monks began the planning to make The Bunker a reality.
With the mini DV revolution in full swing, and with the expensive experience of having shot on 16mm film (the wraparound for the first F.o.t.R.) fresh in mind, Monks became enamored with the ability to shoot 24P footage--digital video that had film look--at a reasonable price. By April of 2005, he had settled on the Panasonic DVX100a camera, and the first solid investment towards producing The Bunker was made.With the new camera and an Audio Technica AT835b boom mic in hand, Monks shot a web promo commercial at the April Chiller Theatre Expo featuring Zacherley, The Cool Ghoul, for the comic book that bears his name, with the legendary horror host from the 50s, 60s and 70s introducing illustrated horror tales in this new incarnation.
The Bunker was shot in Miami (August '05), New Jersey (Jan. '06) and Los Angeles (Feb '06).
