Myortvye docheri

firstly i was really shocked by those extremely negative comments below, so i decided to write this. so: i watched the movie on the la indie film fest with a bad subtitles, in horror program. there's a lot of dialog and it is NOT the horror movie. in-spite of this the film made strong impression to me, i lived it like a piece of lifetime, and i, the watcher, was changed by this movie. - this film DO NOT "entertain". art DO NOT suppose to "entertain" you. if it does, that's good for you, but entertainment is not the aim of real art - watch TV, go circus, make parties, if you need to have pleasure of just spending some funny relaxing moments. What i saw is no doubt a masterpiece, i don'n know the director but i prefer to be in "co-" with Ruminov then with some angry foolish guys (yes, YOU) which do not see, hear, feel art itself, blind mouses in a rat world of kitchen "likes-dislikes", those nazi. If you have bad taste that is your tragedy, what you see from your small eyes is not the reality. try to understand art, or don't talk and write about what you Don't understand.do not try to Analise the landscape if you are blind. don't try to Analise the movie by matching it with some other you luckily just saw. We need to fight for art if we want it to stay on this planet! Do not let them turn the art of cinema into the huge nazi fast-food! So again: this is a great movie, but it is frightening that there soon will be no viewers of such art anymore.

Well done camera work - sometimes a bit shaky but for those who watched Lars von Triers movies this is nothing :). Beautiful film. The plot is typical for horror genre, but with a Russian (Dostoevsky type) twist - the monsters don't kill "just because" but for not being "good" - giving you a chance to think about what is good and bad. Sometimes it's not so obvious. Acting could be better but generally it is a well done entertaining movie with good suspense. For reasons not clear, some Russian reviewers got so disgusted with the movie (see the 'valektburg' comment) that I honestly thought it must be personal. The film didn't deserve this kind of reviews.

This ain't you typical horror flick, although director Pavel Ruminov makes you think the opposite for the first ten minutes or so. It soon gets obvious that this film is much more sophisticated and thought-provoking than The Ring and other Japanese horror remakes/originals. The whole "ghosts of drowned girls seeking revenge on humankind" premise serves as a backdrop to an eclectic thriller that's rich in social satire, extremely dense in visual detail and is way closer to an existential drama than any other "horror" movie out there. Basically it appeared to be sort of a shock therapy for the Russian audiences. Most of the moviegoers expected to see another quality adaptation of an old Japanese concept, but instead were bombarded with a chain of disturbing and highly involving events that made the viewing experience very personal, intimate, and, it appears, in many cases quite unpleasant. As for me, I had no problems with this film whatsoever, probably because I was already familiar with Ruminov's style of movie-making and actually expected much more than a typical ghost movie.

First and the most important thing to know about this movie - it's served as a typical horror. And it's NOT.

It's not a ghost story or a teen-slasher-roller-coaster, it is a story of people. Some unfortunates who found their place in society, but haven't found personal harmony with life that's been given to them. Not very pleasant, but truthful slice of modern society. That people don't have any point in their life, they don't know any better than "do what society expects of them", they're cowards and hypocrites, they don't deserve to live and they prove that as film goes. THAT is the story, and it has some ghost motives in the background.

Expect to see people's drama - and you'll get it. Expect to take a ride on a teen-slasher - and you'll miss.

Can't say I'm a hardcore horror/slasher/whatever-with-blood-boobs-and-sfx fan. Might even say I get bored by such films. But this one is as different as it gets - true horror seeps from every possible plot hole, bland facial expression and camera movement. After two hours of watching I was absolutely terrified. Mostly of the fact that P. Ruminov might make another movie. Dead daughters come bundled with almost everything that was good in the last five years of horror films, but each and every brilliant idea, plot twist or piece of sfx only serves as a reminder of the original thing. The director claimed there are only two four-minute stills in the whole movie, which is innovative. And indeed it is - for the other 115 minutes the camera keeps wobbling, jumping and circling around every object in sight, bringing nausea and carrying away the viewer's ability to see the details. And then there's the desaturation, making everyone look like a malnourished vampire. The actors' performance is surprisingly realistic - they have absolutely no idea of what's going on around them and they're not afraid to show it by staring blankly at the camera. Also there is an unhealthy amount of inside jokes, only funny to hardcore Russian anime fans. Of course, the creator could use - and used - free advertisement, but by now almost each one of those fans who cheered for the future masterpiece is trying to move as far away as possible.

I can congratulate Russian moviegoers on having an aspiring Uwe Boll-wannabe in business, of course, but I personally think one is more than enough.

*It gets a two instead of one because of a single good joke. Two with a minus, but slightly above the ground.