Queen of Spades

I've seen both the Russian Queen of spades and queen of spades the dark rite. While those movies were...ok. The first being the better of the two in my opinion.

This version was simply not good. Bad acting, the protagonists' ill placed teen angst against her mother (for some reason) along with the anger of her friend against her mother. None of the actors seemed to know how to display any sort of emotion. Just dry, dull performances and direction. Terribly predictable, terribly acted. Just plain terrible.

This one is a hard pass, my friends.

This is just a run of the mill possession story.

What? This is actually a rehash of the Russian horror movie Pikovaya dama. Chyornyy obryad (2015) (aka "Pikovaya dama. Chyornyy obryad"). This version does not require subtitles.

This is not as good as most or more original of the genre. It is kids playing with a summoning spell that of course summons. Naturally, they must all die. Will they take it in their stride or try to undo what they have done?

There is nothing exceptional so people that like this stuff will either praise the movie for following the standard formula or diss the movie as nothing unique including the acting and storyline.

The actors are not known except for a few contemporary movies that you may have watched. The main queen Ava Preston does have 30+ credits to her name.

Look in the mirror and say her name three times. Not his name this time, Candyman has been and gone.

The theme of this film will be familiar to horror fans. It begins with four teens witnessing a suicide; the victim jumps off a building and takes a while to die. Then there are three teens, then two - both of the guys are gone. But who can save the day? Not the one who discovered Smirnov - an irresistible if dated cultural reference - that was the second guy to die. Enter Smirnov! This film doesn't really have anything to recommend it until the climax, when we are in "Exorcist" territory with an interesting twist, and this is where it scores.

But did they really exorcise the Queen Of Spades - what do you think?

I stuck with it as long as I could but ultimately couldn't finish the movie.

The entire cast acted like they all took some Benadryl before filming. No chemistry. Low key acting. Nothing particularly scary happens. Done up right it might have been a fun watch.

Just really didn't care for it. It didn't seem scary or spooky or have any plot that was original or in any way different from norm. The acting wasn't great. Just not much to it and definitely no UMPH.