As I sat down to watch the 2019 Russian horror movie "Tvar" (aka "Stray") here late in 2022, I had never heard about the movie, so I didn't know what I was in for here. But being a horror aficionado, of course I opted to sit down and watch what director Olga Gorodetskaya had to offer.
The storyline, as written by Olga Gorodetskaya, Maria Kabanova and Anna Starobinets, definitely had a good foundation and concept idea. However, the transition from script to screen made for a somewhat mediocre and bland horror experience. There was so much potential for something grand here. But when the movie came to the end, I have to admit that I was left with a sense of 'was that really it?' and also of somewhat having wasted 90 minutes on something mediocre.
The acting performances in "Tvar" were good. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, as I have only watched so many Russian movies. But the actors and actresses carried the movie quite well. Child actor Sevastian Bugaev (playing the Stray) was definitely nicely cast as he was able to put on some genuinely disturbing performances when needed.
Visually then "Tvar" is somewhat of a mixed bag of nuts. Some of the special effects look good and definitely added a layer to the movie that helped carry the movie, and then there were effects that were questionable and dubious, such as the CGI animated kid.
For a horror movie then director Olga Gorodetskaya didn't bring anything new or overly thrilling or scary to the genre. "Tvar" is a watchable enough movie, at least for a single viewing, but that is also about what there is to it.
My rating of "Tvar" lands on a five out of ten stars.
