Saturday, September 20, 2014

Dark Fantasy With Really Cold Weather: Russian Horror (part 1)


It took a while, but my survey of Russian horror is finally (mostly) complete. I didn’t intend for it to take so long, but Russian horror isn’t exactly easy to come by. 

There isn’t much written about it, and there is so very little Russian horror as it turns out. I almost gave up, to be honest. I feel like the hobbits returning to the Shire. But after paying a handsome sum to an old nun with a wooden leg and the monkey stopped giving me trouble, I was able to finally watch them for myself. 

Those Russians might finally be turning the tables recently, but it turns out that, up until the 1980’s, only one bonafide horror film was made in Russia. Just one. That’s pretty crazy when you think about it. But don’t take to Twitter and complain just yet. There’s a reason.

Russian cinema has traditionally been a late-starter during every major era. The first Russian film was made in 1908, long after trick films and chase films had already become staples elsewhere. 

It wasn’t until the first World War when the Russian film industry was finally making mostly Russian films, more than any time before or since. And for the next decade or two, Russian filmmakers were doing some crazy stuff. 

Like, I dunno, inventing the concept of montage. Explaining the mechanics of editing. Kuleshov. Kino-eye. You get the picture (no pun intended).

So the legacy of Russian cinema is well-established, but what about Russian horror? Why are there no zombies or space monsters or even ghost stories in Russia? You would think that horror would be a fitting genre for a culture known for its brooding and anxious nature.

Sorry to bother you. We're just looking for your horror movies.

Well, the main reason is politics. 

Because Soviet-era art was restricted to the ideology of atheistic, Marxist materialism, it didn’t leave much room for horror at all. Anything that made reference to the supernatural was off limits, as was pretty much any notion of the uncanny. 

Horror is also very personal, and includes attacks on the body and, in general, invasions of personal space. That is why so many horror stories feature domestic spaces like homes, bedrooms, bathrooms, schools, etc. But in Soviet Russia, the concept of personal space just didn’t exist, or at least wasn’t acknowledged publicly. 

It's just one song. Call Me Maybe... you heard it? Let me just
play it for you once. Just once, I promise. Oh come on.

Marxist materialism also didn’t have much room for the irrational in general, including abnormal psychology. Horror often features themes of insanity, depression, anxiety, paranoia, etc. To a Bolshevik, this would hardly be fit for entertainment. Horror also thrives on the imminence of uncontrollable chaos (think zombies), and to the order-loving Soviet mentality, this is also counter-productive.

But having said all that, the new film industry in Russia is a lot more like the one that existed before the Revolution. It is more Westernized, and every effort is being made to get Russians a seat at the world table. A lot of countries are doing this, actually, particularly in Asia. 

Be like Hollywood long enough to build your industry, then start telling your stories. It makes good economic sense, and it’s working. Just look at Hong Kong.

One of the first big blockbusters in post-Soviet Union Russia was, in fact, a horror movie. You might say they are gearing up for some really interesting changes in aesthetics, and I’m anxious as hell to see it. 

In Part 1, I’m just looking at the big-budget, mainstream films of the last decade. And get excited, because a few of them are in English. 

Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006)
Subgenres: Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action

Night Watch and Day Watch tell the stories of two races of beings that once were at war with one another, but declared a truce that has lasted quite a long time. They have to keep each other from eating the humans, and an awful lot of effort is spent to convince one boy that he should be on one side or the other. 

It starts with a morally shocking opener: the protagonist paying a witch to curse his wife who is pregnant with another man’s child, and cause her to miscarry so that she doesn’t have to divorce him. That's pretty messed up, so already, we're into some really weird, moral territory. Some of the places the film goes from there are quite interesting, but the story suffers from being so damn confusing at times. 

The premise may be pretty straightforward, but the plot is a mess. In Ebert’s review of Night Watch, he wrote, “those who understand the plot of Night Watch should forget about the movies and get right to work on string theory.” That about sums it up, unfortunately.

But perhaps that’s not fair. The films suffer from being too many things at once. They’re not trying to be that original, at least not in the sense of doing anything new. It borrows from the Matrix, Star Wars, classic German horror films and many others. The plot is indeed exceedingly confusing, but the fun is in seeing Russian filmmakers show us what they are capable of. 

If you watch this movie, though, expect a somewhat mediocre story, with a few fun and memorable moments. The part involving something called the Gloom is really creepy and fun, as is the swirly vortex of literal chaos surrounding a woman that is cursed with bad luck. 

Not really that scary, because it’s more of an action-thriller with some horror-elements, but it’s a good throwaway popcorn flick. 

Viy (2014)
Subgenres: Dark Fantasy, Religious, Witchcraft

This move is a remake of the one and only Soviet-era horror film of the same name (which I will talk about in Part 2). The 2014 version is also loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's folk tale, though it is much more modernized. 

In fact, this movie tells a story that is very similar to the story of Russia's film industry. It begins with an Englishman that is sent into the East to map the territory, and he finds a small village that seems to be straight out of a storybook. Everyone in this town is predisposed to finding evil everywhere, not realizing they they, themselves, are being used as instruments of some devilish influence that seems to prefer things stay this way. 

You might say that this arrangement recalls the conditions for Soviet-era filmmakers that had to enlighten an audience that didn't want to be enlightened. There is such an atmosphere of fear and paranoia that Salem-esque scenario doesn't seem that far-fetched. 

The original plot involving a monk that reluctantly prays for three nights over a witch's body only takes up about twenty minutes of this film. The rest of the film is like all of the hypothetical stuff that might have led to the need for such a ritual to even happen. There are some truly scary parts of this film, mostly in the middle. Actually, though it is very rare to say, this is a film where the middle is probably the strongest. The exposition in the beginning is slow and sometimes confusing, and the ending might strike some viewers as being at best anti-climactic, and at worst cheating. 

This feels more like a Pirates of the Carribean film, with a little Pan's Labyrinth thrown in. My experience might have also been aided by a better translation, because the version I watched was badly subtitled, and even had some Russian dubbed over parts of the film that were clearly in English. Which reminds me: Tywin Lannister is in this movie (for all you GOT fans). 

Devil’s Pass
Subgenres: Found Footage, Survival, Sci-Fi

This might be the most fun I’ve had watching a found footage film. The Blair Witch Project had a good story, but wasn’t that scary, and it was nauseating to watch. A lot of found footage films are nauseating to watch, but this one really wasn’t. 

In Russia, there was a famous story involving the death of a group of hikers in the Northern Ural Mountains, in a place known as Devil’s Pass. This movie is the found footage recovered from some American film students that set out to investigate the disappearance on their own.

Now, if you can get over the premise of some unknown filmmakers from America going to ground zero of the Russian equivalent of Area 51, and you accept that, then this will be be a very enjoyable film for you. Get over that hump, and you’re there.

The characters are drawn very well, each with a distinct personality, and they are introduced to us in very interesting ways. One of them is seen for the first time while sitting in front of his editing station, hitting the space bar to play clips from an interview with a woman that is giving us the official story of what happened at Devil’s Pass. It cuts back and forth between her comments and his, conveying not just the information for the plot, but also tells us a good deal about him. This sort of scene also tells viewers like yours truly that they don’t intend to waste my time. I kinda like that.

From a found footage film standpoint, the film sticks to convention, but is smoother around the edges. For instance, the leader of the project is unsurprisingly accused of being the author of some of the hijinks that ensue, and it is believed that she is creating them on purpose for the film. Not an original trope, but it’s very effective.

This is a found footage film in which the footage is (thankfully, for a change) shot in HD. No more graininess or artifacts to add to the nausea. The locations in this film are really very beautiful, and watching it, you almost forget it’s a found footage film until the moments between takes when the characters speak candidly. 

It’s hard to tell a suspenseful story without at least some physical action, and revealing that action in a found footage film is a delicate balance. On the one hand, there’s the frustrating, migraine-inducing visual chaos that is the most likely real-life result of a camera operator trying not to get eaten, and on the other, the careful staging of the camera so that we see who gets eaten. If that sounds challenging, that’s because it totally is.

It’s also a challenge to explain why we’re seeing what we’re seeing, when most people would just turn the damn camera off. It’s what I would do if I was in a situation where I might get eaten, but that's just me.

The movie gets pretty scary in the second half, and it had a very satisfying ending for me, especially considering the fact that found footage films are notorious for having terrible endings. Can you name a found footage film that had a satisfying ending? The Blair Witch Project just sort of ends. Same thing with Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield. No ending.

So I definitely recommend this film. It doesn’t hit every note, but the finished song is more impressive than what has come before it.

I wish I could recommend the rest of these, but I don't really think I can. But in case they're your cup of tea...

Captivity 
Subgenres: Survival, Suspense, Body

I loved the look of this movie, with its gold and red palette, but not much else at all. Get a pretty American girl and put her into an unbelievable scenario that fails to create tension and, at least for this reviewer, has one of the most disappointingly predictable endings. It is in English, though, and you may like it if you like movies like Hostel. It’s pretty straighforward, but nothing to write home about.

Phobos - Club of Fear
Subgenres: Survival, Paranormal

This film chooses an amazing location in which to tell the story, but then it deprives the audience for a full hour of any action whatsoever. It fails to raise any stakes or give us any scares at all, then undermines the whole thing with a terrible ending. The WWII-era backdrop could have made this film promising, had it been better written and at least competently executed. Watch if you liked Final Destination, but don’t expect it to be as good.

Trackman
Subgenres: Slasher, Thriller, Survival

Another story that takes place in a great location and even has a promising and simple scenario, but it goes absolutely nowhere. The scenario involving some bank robbers at the mercy of a giant maniac in a subterranean sewer system eventually takes us through tedium and farce until we at last are rooting for the Trackman to just kill the characters already. It’s never a good sign when the villain is accidentally the good guy.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I'll discuss some of the more artistic and underground horror films in Russia.