Hooptober 9: It’s in Space Now 

Well, at least the effects were cool.

What do you want me to say about this? It’s an incredibly derivative film that never really finds its identity. Not to mention that runtime. Jesus did it really need to be almost two hours long? With how damn bad the pacing is and how sluggish it all feels, what cool shit we do get feels few and far between. Seriously they could’ve trimmed so much shit out of this and had an ok 90 minute film.

But those mold effects are dope and gross which keeps this from being pure dogwater. It’s grotesque and gooey and gloriously practical. There’s a scene where they’re pulling samples off…

Es sind die achtziger Jahre und die Sowjetunion arbeitet in einem geheimen Labor im tiefsten Bohrloch der Erde. Als irgendetwas schief geht und das Labor nicht mehr erreichbar ist, wird eine Gruppe von Wissenschaftlern unter der Leitung von Anna losgeschickt, um das Problem zu lösen. Dieses Team wird nicht auf das vorbereitet sein, was es in den Tiefen vorfinden wird und am Ende liegt die Zukunft der Menschheit in ihren Händen.

"Ein Team in einer Forschungsstation in der Antarktis, bekommt es mit Außerirdischen und/oder Monstern zu tun", das kommt mir doch bekannt vor und ich habe schon den einen oder anderen Film gesehen, der eine ähnliche Ausgangssituation hatte und da waren auch durchaus ein paar Meisterwerke dabei.

"The Superdeep" ist…

So this one didn't hold my attention as much as I thought it would. There's some 1980s Soviet shenanigans involved in some Superdeep installation and they awaken some mold(?) The helicopter scene made me think Predator but this movie is more The Thing.

One of the first disappointing things with it is Shudder doesn't have a Russian language version and while the English dub isn't too annoying, it's slightly distracting not to have the native language.

There's also a lot of overly dramtized "we need to keep this from the world" but they don't because they all end up running around in the mold forest. It's not all very original but I'll be forgiving because I do appreciate the scifi/horror…

Based on the actual Kola drilling experiment in the 1970s, this imaginative piece transforms the event into an elaborate horror scenario, with liberal vibes of H.P. Lovecraft and some influences from John Carpenter's classic The Thing (1982) and Event Horizon (1997).

Set in 1984, the year before the onset of Glastnost, the story focuses on epidemiologist Anna Fedorova and her assignment to evaluate a poorly-understood happening at the site of a seven-mile deep drill hole that the Soviets are very guarded about. The descent, via a fabulous, Bauhaus-looking "elevator", into the bowels of the earth is, by itself, worth the price of admission.

As the shocking reality is discovered, Fedorova and her military colleagues experience horror that nearly beggars description.…

In letzter Zeit schaffen es immer mehr russische Filme einen internationalen Release zu bekommen. Das sich ihre Qualität die letzten Jahre gesteigert hat, ist nicht von der Hand zu weisen. Mit Superdeep (irgendwie ein treffender aber auch blöder Titel) ist nun der nächste Film in meiner Playlist gelandet.

Weder Fisch noch Fleisch. Nicht halbes und nichts ganzes. Man kennt sie, diese Sprichwörter, abgedroschen aber hier sind sie treffend. Superdeep ist bei Leibe kein schlechter Film. Aber leider auch kein richtig guter. Man hat hier die richtigen Zutaten um einen schicken, kleinen Horrorfilm zu drehen. Die Schauspieler sind solide. Milena Radulovic in der Hauptrolle macht nen guten Job. Die Story braucht ein wenig um in Fahrt zu kommen. Und dann zeigt…

English-language Russian sci-fi mash-up of subterranean horror, viral outbreak suspense thriller, and gloopy Cronenbergian mutation mania. There's a research facility way way way underground where something has gone wrong, so a new team is sent down to investigate. Aesthetic, tonal and narrative reminiscences of "The Thing", "The Descent" and "The Core" abound.

While it bears a well-funded sheen and would read like a good yarn on paper, the movie is curiously uninvolving, moving too slowly, drawing out everything a little more than necessary, not allowing the characters any room to pop on their own (some are protagonists, some antagonists, but all are indistinct slaves to plotting), and obnoxiously obscuring the promised monster within extra-darkened corridors and hectic editing. This could've…