'Hukkunud Alpinisti' hotell

The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is constructed like a classic murder mystery. You take an odd group of characters, confine them together in a remote location, one of them shows up dead, and then a detective must unravel what happened. I quite like the way it is presented visually. Somehow they manage to make this hotel feel large and spacious in one scene and then confined and claustrophobic in another. Not to mention the overall strange and other-worldly look of the place. They also did a great job of making it seem like there was someone watching our protagonist, around every single corner. There are a number of minutes where The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is a tad slow, and I felt like the story wasn't progressing. However, I was always drawn back into the movie, because I was waiting to discover the identity of the murderer. Sadly, I think the ending was the worst part for me. It takes a turn that simply didn't work and left me scratching my head. I feel like the intent was to make a bit of social commentary with that ending, but it didn't work effectively based on how the film was set up. I wanted a more grounded and logical conclusion. I doubt I'll be seeking The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel for a second viewing, but it was at least intriguing enough to keep me engaged throughout its runtime.

'Dead Mountaineer's Hotel' still remains basically only Estonian science fiction film in the truest sense. Police inspector arrives into remote mountain hotel to investigate anonymous tip where he discovers that it was false alarm. After the avalanche cuts the hotel, and all it's inhabitants from the outer world, the strange things start to occur. Doppelgangers, terrorists, aliens, androids, and flirtatious sultry women.

Wonderful cinematography of snowy mountains under bright sun against dark interior of the hotel that leaves feeling that it's as cold inside the hotel as it is outside, and intensifies the claustrophobic atmosphere of the hotel. Inspector Glebsky grows more and more desperate and paranoid when he tries to solve the crimes only relying on his common sense, logic and skepticism that lead to unfortunate tragic events leaving audience falter who was the real villain. The name of the hotel 'Dead Mountaineer' is explained briefly (and quite satisfactory), but it also leaves nice eerie mystery floating around - who was that enigmatic 'dead mountaineer' whose dog still sleeps under his bleak portrait hanging on the wall. Sven Grünberg's fantastic synthesizer score adds another layer of mystery and anticipation. The song 'Ball' has a lyrics, but they don't make sense because it's only gibberish - and when we see aliens dance to this song hypnotically it's almost like they understand it (although real reason why the song didn't had any proper words was the Soviet regulation of the time demanding the lyrics of the song to be translated into Russian when released in Russia - Grünberg didn't like the idea of translating his lyrics so he invented the gibberish for the song.).

Unfortunately, some of the other reviews and especially their titles somewhat give away ahead of time what the audience really doesn't come to know until towards the end of the story. So, I guess my first suggestion would be to be careful which reviews you read about this movie.

It is a very unusual film, that sets off being somewhat of a Crime/Mystery story, which it definitely is, but later transforms somewhat into something else. Like I mentioned, I do not want to give anything important away.

I don't think I've ever seen an Estonian film before, it is an interesting language. I expected it to sound more like Russian and Polish, but it didn't really. I wonder what the roots of the Estonian language are?

Especially for the time and I'm assuming by filmmakers that didn't have a ton of experience, I felt it was quite a stylish and sharply written/directed movie that really kept the audience in suspense as to what was actually going on.

There are some really nice Surreal touches that many times in films like this may come across as a bit dated and pretentious, but quite honestly I was rather surprised that the cinematography, sound design, and the editing contributed to a pretty solid atmosphere that I think perfectly blended a Crime/Mystery with more Surreal aspects.

Someone else mentioned the movie 'ALPHAVILLE', and I would say that there are some similarities in the look and mood of the film. But, the eventual reveals are more subtle.

So, a bit on the 'Artsy' side, but for this type of movie done at that time, I think it was put together in an engaging and effective way. It may not appeal to everyone, but to ones who perhaps like movies that are a bit more on the Surreal and somewhat understated side, then you might find this one intriguing...

I gave it a '7' due to its quality and effectiveness, perhaps leaning more towards it's artistic slant. But, maybe considering 'Mass Appeal' some may consider it more of a '6'

I have to say "Hotel of Dead Mountaineer" is ahead of its time. OK, script was pretty anachronistic in 1978, because the basic book was written 1970, after social turmoils and "revolutions" in USA and Europe and some moments weren't so obvious in late 70s anymore. But after 9/11 is pretty sure that questions like "terrorist or freedom-fighter?" isn't so stupid at all. So the idea of naive alien helping terrorists doesn't look weird anymore.

Movie's special ultramodern design, cold style and dark atmosphere looked maybe a bit over the top in late 70s but became mainstream in 80s, especially in sci-fi and A- category horror movies. "The Hunger" for example has very similar visual style but was filmed 5 years later. The Grünberg's music isn't typical 70s movie soundtrack, the cold and synthesized soundscape became popular also in 80s and later. Theatralic, unnatural, openly strange acting became popular also years later. I like "HUH" ("HODM") because it works, it looks cool and timeless and the movie is overall unforgettable. Like its one its influence, "Zabriskie Point", "HUH" is panned by critics from premiere but has remained cult classic anyway.

Second viewing. An important sci-fi film written by the authors of Tarkovsky's "Stalker" with Juri Jarvet, who starred in Tarkovsky's "Solaris" soon after his superb performance in Kozintsev's "King Lear." But in this film, it is actor Uldis Pucitis who is most impressive as the Police inspector. Important film for fans of Jarvet, the Strugatsky brothers' writings and sci-fi films