Here is a number that is hard to wrap your head around: 750,000. That is how many concrete bunkers communist dictator Enver Hoxha ordered built across Albania — one for every four citizens — because he was convinced his tiny nation was surrounded by enemies on all sides. The invasion never came. Hoxha died, communism collapsed, and Albania was left with 750,000 bunkers it could not afford to demolish. Some found use in everyday Albanian life. Some were sealed up and forgotten. And at least one of them became the setting for a horror film — shot twenty meters underground, at -10 degrees Celsius, with a monster living behind a wall.
That film is Blades in the Darkness, directed by Alex Visani, and it has more going on beneath the surface than the average creature feature.
The Film
The story opens in Tirana, Albania, in 1997. The fall of communism has left the country in chaos, with a bloody civil war spilling through the streets. A teenager named Matia (Matia Cobanaj) is being harassed by his playmates and hides inside an abandoned bunker to escape. What he finds inside will change the course of his life — though the film keeps that detail deliberately vague for now.
“Something has been sealed behind a wall inside that bunker for decades. It is bloodthirsty, armed with deadly blades, and it is not happy about the company.”
Twenty-five years later, a group of young friends sees opportunity where others see ruins. Davide (Endrit Ahmetaj), Giulia (Ingrid Monacelli), Nua (Ilirda Bejleri), and Adrian (Ermir Jonka) plan to convert that same communist-era bunker into a trendy new venue. It is the kind of dream that sounds ambitious and slightly naive, which, of course, it is. One member of the group has been quietly skimming money to pay off a debt to some very unforgiving former associates — and those associates are not the type to accept an explanation. When things turn violent, the group discovers they have a much bigger problem than organized crime. Something has been sealed behind a wall inside that bunker for decades. It is bloodthirsty, armed with deadly blades, and unhappy about the company.
The monster — known in the credits as the Blades Man and played by Lorenzo Lepori — is the adult version of young Matia, warped by whatever he encountered down there as a teenager and left alone in the dark ever since. Francesco Rossini plays a shadowy figure called the Commander, with Manuela Arcuri as his wife, and Arnold Damazzeti as Ilir, the group member whose debt sets everything in motion.
The Bunker Backstory
To understand why Blades in the Darkness works as well as it does, you have to understand the bunkers.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha became convinced that his country was surrounded by enemies on all sides — NATO, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and China. His response was to order the construction of concrete mushroom-shaped bunkers in every corner of Albania, from mountain passes to city streets, covering the country at a density of 5.7 per square kilometer. By the time Hoxha died in 1985, more than 750,000 bunkers had been built. That is roughly one for every four Albanians.
“A monster sealed underground during the communist era and left to fester for 25 years is not just a horror premise. It is a metaphor hiding in plain sight.”
When communism collapsed in 1991, Albania was left with a problem nobody knew how to solve. Demolishing 750,000 concrete structures was too expensive, so the bunkers simply stayed. Some Albanians converted them into cafés, shops, storage units, and shelters. Others were abandoned and eventually forgotten. They became part of the landscape — a strange, stubborn physical reminder of a paranoid regime that is gone but not exactly buried.
That history gives the film its backbone. A monster sealed underground during the communist era and left to fester for 25 years is not just a horror premise. It is a metaphor hiding in plain sight.
How It Inspired the Director
Alex Visani has been working in Italian independent horror since the 1990s, with films that have screened at festivals from Buenos Aires to Atlanta to Bucharest. When he and producer Alessandro Albertini decided to shoot in Albania, the bunkers were not just a backdrop — they were the whole idea. The film was shot almost entirely inside a real bunker, twenty meters underground, in conditions that most productions would never agree to. Visani’s own summary of the experience: “I had a lot of fun writing and shooting it… especially at -10 degrees, inside the bunker.”
“…a paranoid regime that is gone but not exactly buried.”
That kind of commitment shows. The film uses practical effects throughout, skipping the cheap digital shortcuts that drag most low-budget horror down. The bunker itself — cramped, claustrophobic, and genuinely freezing — does half the work of building dread before the monster ever shows up. You cannot fake that on a soundstage.
Blades in the Darkness went on to win Best International Feature Film at the Days of the Dead Film Festival in 2023, with additional official selections at the Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival, the Dracula Film Festival in Romania, the Los Angeles Horror Film Festival, and the Atlanta Horror Film Festival. A sequel, Blades in the Darkness 2, followed in 2026.
Where to See It
Blades in the Darkness is currently available to stream for free on Kanopy or through the Magnolia Selects and Monsters and Nightmares channels on Amazon Prime Video. You can also rent or buy it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Plex. Physical media fans can pick up the DVD or Blu-ray on Amazon. For more information, visit bladesinthedarkness.com.
