Ryad 19

When the translation of the title simply takes its meaning out of context (in time, Row 19 is the row of seats the survivor was in, and which her daughter always says is hers) A Russian horror film, in the style of "Final Destination", a little slower and less interesting, could have delved more into the terror and the passengers and less into the protagonist's thoughts and delusions, the premise is interesting, with only reasonable execution...

A doctor on a night flight comes across mysterious deaths among the passengers while losing touch with reality and revisiting a childhood nightmare, all while taking care of her young daughter.

The synopsis for the 2021 thriller "Ryad 19" (aka "Row 19") sounded interesting, and I also liked the movie's cover. I had not heard about this thriller from writer James Rabb and director Alexander Babaev prior to sitting down to watch it, so I didn't know what I was in for here.

Well, this movie was unique. Let's just call it that. But I didn't find it particularly enjoyable or entertaining. The movie's storyline felt like a collection of the writer's nightmares penned down on paper and given to the director. Much of it didn't really make much of any sense, and felt like random fragments shot independently by different directors that weren't working on the same script. So there was a sense of chaotic randomness and a lack of coherent red thread throughout the course of the movie.

Visually then "Ryad 19" was good, but special effects and CGI is only worth so much without a proper storyline forming around them. And "Ryad 19" was lacking just that.

The acting performances in "Ryad 19" were good, despite the fact that the storyline felt like rubbish to me. I wasn't familiar with the cast at all in this movie.

I didn't finish this movie, because I simply gave up on the storyline as it fell short of capturing my interesting. So it was somewhat of a swing and a miss from writer James Rabb and director Alexander Babaev.

My rating of "Ryad 19" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

And of course I found this movie on my favorite streaming service Tubi. I love Tubi because it has all of the f-z list movies that crave my guilty pleasure. Row 19 did not disappoint with feeding my appetite.

As another reviewer said, this movie was unique. The storyline was much different from the typical movies I am used to. I actually enjoyed it, though slow paced and you find yourself kind of like, ugh get to the point already.

I won't ruin with any spoilers but I do have to say the one thing that distracted me throughout the entire movie is the daughter, who is 6 (you learn of her in the movie description) was voiced by what sounded like a 20 year old woman. That was really annoying and after getting used to it, I could somewhat thoroughly enjoy the movie. I just wish they would have had an age appropriate voiceover actor, read her lines. It was awkward hearing this 20 year old voice say "mommy" from a 6 year old face. Though the actress herself looks at least 10.

I chose to watch Row 19 because of its short runtime (77 minutes) and because the synopsis sounded interesting. And indeed, it turned out to be an intriguing Russian supernatural thriller with some unexpected plot twists. I often found myself guessing what kind of turn the movie would take next based on the hints we, as viewers, are given, but it was surprisingly difficult.

Some of the characters are quite unique, and if the acting had been better, I would rate this higher. Unfortunately, none of the cast delivers a stellar performance. The emotionless acting might just be the Russian style-who knows? Another annoying aspect, also pointed out by others, is the English voiceover for the little girl. She really sounds like an adult, and I wonder if they couldn't find anyone better suited.

All in all, I could certainly have spent that 1 hour and 17 minutes in a worse way than watching Row 19. I also learned that, in Russia, there's apparently an airline that flies with just a few passengers onboard, even when all other flights are canceled for the day. But putting that peculiar and illogical aspect aside, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to anyone looking for a short and entertaining movie experience.

The story itself isn't the worst because the premise is decent, with a survivor of an airplane crash having to relive her worst nightmare on an airplane. It does have a decent build-up to it, but the pacing is off with current scenes and doesn't leave an impact on the movie, or it happened pretty quickly. The movie itself fails to be creepy by showing generic creepy images throughout and cheap jump scares. Also, the passenger of the airplane is slowly killed off one by one, which isn't a bad idea but is poorly executed. There's also the backstory of the main character, which does a decent job of developing the character. The ending itself is pretty confusing on what just happened. I think there's a meaning to it, and I somewhat guess what happened, but it makes the plot even more confusing.