Like all good horror films should be, this one excels in its dark atmosphere and a pervading sense of dread throughout (not an easy thing to accomplish by any means), so if you like your horror films made in a lugubrious, understated style in the eastern European mould, then this one may be right up your horror alley but do make sure you get a proper set of subtitles as most available will not translate the Georgian language spoken in the movie to English properly!
It does feel a little underdeveloped and could have been so much more but it is a lot better than a lot of the endless USA stalk and slash attempts at horror I have been watching recently and they do pretty well with the budget they had to work with in this film.
Some utterly superb photography, sweeping quadcopter shots over mountains and lakes, luscious scenery, some good snowboarding scenes if that is your thing and competent acting (which is always a bonus in a horror film) and I have to say the director Stanislav does conjure up a rather languorous, ominous and dread filled atmosphere with what he had to work with. It is not filled with gratuitous kills or the usual low brow foul language which is a welcome relief after having had to endure dreck like "Those Who Wish Me Dead" just before I watched this and Let It Snow is a far, far better movie, with 100th the budget and no well known actors in it imho.
The music and sound effects were also perfect and well chosen for the film and added to the mystery which is something a lot of directors try for and most fail at.
This film actually reminds me of "The Dyatlov Pass" movie in a lot of ways but watch out for the blood soaked snowman scene, it was real "horror" in the true sense of the word and chilled me to the bone and was the perfect ending for a true horror film - Unfortunately the usual end credits scene should have been cut and did spoil this superb ending for me; it is as if horror directors seem to think it is part of the menu for creating a horror to give us a mid credits or end credits surprise ending but most times it is not necessary and is superfluous to requirements and can actually spoil the film!
I have lived in eastern Europe so the style and folklore elements are not foreign to me but I guess for a lot of viewers it may be a bit too far out of their comfort zone but give it a go, you might just find it hits that horror nerve deliciously!
If you are looking for that elusive decent horror film this year then you may just find this is the Diamond amongst the coal this year and a solid above average 6 hatchets on the horror scale from me on this rather admirable low budget eastern European horror!
