This movie, although beautifully shot and produced, was a disaster when it came to the story. It started out great and had lots of potential to be a creative, fresh, new ghost story, but ultimately it turned out to be nothing more than a movie that kept falling into dead end after dead end. I felt like this movie was a failed attempt to create the same kind of horror that a much more successful Takashi Miike film, Audition, created in 2001.
The end of this movie was completely lost and confused within itself. It seemed as if the makers of the movie halfway trough couldn't find out what the hell was really going on and why the main character was even in Russia in the first place. The main character who at first seemed complex and driven to find change in her life, became nothing more than a passive observer of the movie of which she was the star. Talk about a let down. Who wants to sit and watch a movie about a main character who, halfway through, ends up doing nothing but sitting and watching the same movie as well? She became the epitome of the classic passive-observing character. It's so sad that the film ended up such a disaster because it had everything else going for it.
There is truly a lot great skill and talent within this movie. The sets were amazing the mood was creepy, the actors were intense and involved, and the cinematography was one continuous beautiful metaphor, but without out a story that brings everything together and convincingly and completely pulls the viewer into the movies reality, it can be nothing more than a failed attempt at making a true horror film.
The end of this movie was completely lost and confused within itself. It seemed as if the makers of the movie halfway trough couldn't find out what the hell was really going on and why the main character was even in Russia in the first place. The main character who at first seemed complex and driven to find change in her life, became nothing more than a passive observer of the movie of which she was the star. Talk about a let down. Who wants to sit and watch a movie about a main character who, halfway through, ends up doing nothing but sitting and watching the same movie as well? She became the epitome of the classic passive-observing character. It's so sad that the film ended up such a disaster because it had everything else going for it.
There is truly a lot great skill and talent within this movie. The sets were amazing the mood was creepy, the actors were intense and involved, and the cinematography was one continuous beautiful metaphor, but without out a story that brings everything together and convincingly and completely pulls the viewer into the movies reality, it can be nothing more than a failed attempt at making a true horror film.