The War Below is not just another war movie. It’s a fantastic achievement that, on a low budget, tells the untold journey of a group of Yorkshire miners who tunneled below battlegrounds to take out 10,000 German soldiers on the frontlines of World War I.

In writer-director J.P. Watts’ take on the story, some of these same men who made huge progress in a stalemate were turned away as soldiers after being deemed unfit to fight. This is the plight of Watts’ main character William Hawkin (Sam Hazeldine), who is determined to prove his worth in an army that doesn’t often give the impoverished miner a second glance. 

Watts spoke of his discovery of the story and his drive to tell it: "With the 100-year anniversary of World War I, there were hundreds of articles and things coming out, and I hadn’t heard of the tunnelers before. We, of course, studied World War I at school, but I sent this article to my writing partner [Thomas Woods], and I asked how can we do something like this for half a million-pound budget? I knew a lot of people who had been in the army and Thomas had connections as well, and I thought if we could limit it to a few locations and a core group of people we could make it happen. We had a lot of local people featured in the story. Everyone wanted to help and get on board."

Eventually the miners were given the title of "Royal Engineers" in the army. Despite the title, there was nothing glamorous about their work; it was just as dangerous as the work of those in the field. They worked with claustrophobia and tension and if they read the ground wrong everything could collapse upon them (not to mention give away their location to the enemy).

Watts really wanted the audience to know that the Royal Engineers were average, ordinary people.

"They were clay kickers, sewer miners digging sewers one day and told by their boss they’d go to France the next and dig for their king. They had no military training that you’d associate with this kind of thing. It must have been terrifying to do this thing nobody had done and they went in there and did it."

Watts’ team did a tremendous job recreating the tight tunnels that the miners spent hours upon hours constructing. He gives much credit to his production designer Caroline Steiner.

"We couldn’t afford big, long tunnel sections so we made smaller sections that we could move around and change it up. We made certain dips that you could fill in with water. We also used no film lights at all in the tunnels. We just used candles or candelabras to give it that claustrophobic and scary feeling. It really gave us the feeling we were after."

Watts took his production to Beamish, a small village in England that is home to Beamish Museum, which is considered a living museum. (It replicates a town of the early 20th century and has dubbed itself an open-air museum).

"With Beamish, the set was basically already there," effused Watts.

"I had been there as a child on a school trip and when we were making the film I immediately thought of it. The tourists would stop and have a chat with us when we were working and then we would go off and film. At night when it was shut down, we had the run of it. It was perfect."

The filmmakers of The War Below were often working in just as close quarters as the miners themselves. Watts admitted he couldn’t cast anyone too big for fear of getting stuck in the tunnel.

"These were a dream," Watts said of his cast. "I didn’t have to do too much with them. They would nail it the first or second time every time."

It is often Hazeldine as Bill Hawkin who anchors the movie. The character almost seems destined to want to take on the role of hero from the beginning; back at home he has a son and a wife and with wartime being tough and his family struggling, it’s clear Bill wants to make them proud. Watts says it’s Bill’s notion of self-worth that often drives him throughout the movie.

"He’s lower in society ... it makes sense that he would do something grand to help find his self-worth. He’d do anything to not have his son grow up in an era of war."

The film focuses on the last tunnel built in World War I. According to Watts, the war started moving too fast for tunnels after that and despite the great success of the final tunnel, they were never used again. That didn’t mean the tunnels supremely changed these miners’ lives, however.

"People were literally trying to blow you up," stressed Watts.

"Even though it changed everybody, people didn't talk about it. They would go back to their normal lives. But they did it for each other, and there’s no doubt there was brotherhood behind that ... real friendship."

The War Below is now playing in virtual cinemas in the United States and will be streaming on TVOD on 11/11. The film is also available in the U.K., and Ireland.