USSR, eve of 1987. A young epidemiologist, Anna Fedorova, is summoned on a business trip right from the festive table. She will have to go to the Kola superdeep well – the largest secret facility in the country, where an emergency occurred. Anna, as part of a small group, descends to a depth of 12 kilometers to take tissue samples from patients with a mysterious disease.

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The Russian fantastic body-horror film ‘Kola Superdeep’ has been widely released, the plot of which is based on well-known bikes associated with a real-life well 12 kilometers from the city of Zapolyarny in the Murmansk region. This well is the deepest mine in the world. As a result of drilling, which was carried out intermittently from 1970 to 1991, the depth of the well was about 13 kilometers; the diameter of the upper part is 92 cm, the diameter of the lower part is 21.5 cm. But after a series of accidents in 1994, the well was closed, later turning into a tourist attraction. The Kola superdeep well has served as a source of all kinds of horror stories and fakes published in magazines and newspapers in different countries. And word of mouth and television reports only increased the frightening effect that human screams were supposedly heard from the well, as if the drillers had reached the borders of Hell itself, not to mention a demonic creature that got out of the ground through a drill pipe.

In general, rumors gave rise to stories, and in the meantime they formed the basis for the practical work of creative people, including Dmitry Glukhovsky, who wrote “From Hell” for the collection “Tales of the Motherland” and the Englishman Anthony Waller, who shot the film “Horror at a depth of 9 miles” in 2009 year. Years later, Russian filmmakers also turned to this topic, but with minor changes, as a result of which the well has already turned into an underground scientific station, and the screams of people – into victims of a mysterious monster, which is not really the fundamental structure of the plot development. Many film critics with contradictory conclusions compared the picture exclusively with ‘Alien’ and ‘Something’, although if you look closely, the authors of this work drew inspiration not from films at all, but more from computer games, in particular “Dead Space” and “The Last of Us “. Particularly striking is some similarity with the last game. Although physically Russian filmmakers could not copy it, physically, since the game was released this summer, and the film was filmed last year. This all suggests that the authors of the game and the feature film were spinning the same concept in their heads and thinking in the same direction, which ultimately led to a logical outcome.

Speaking of the atmosphere, the paintings ‘Through the Horizon’ and ‘Under the Water’ are immediately remembered, where the creators gradually led the viewer to the mysterious, epic and truly ominous, thanks to which the same ‘Alien’ and ‘Something’ will seem like child’s play against the background a real threat to all mankind. That is why the forcing intrigue of frightening unknown fully enhances the effect of audience involvement. But, as you know, you can’t go far on one atmosphere, therefore, without a high-quality script, even the most desperate attempts at technical achievements will be in vain. And in this case, it is the script that is the Achilles’ heel of the whole picture, with its terrifying dialogues that do not stand up to criticism. The authors offer the viewer the era of the Soviet past, although nothing prevented the transfer of events to our time. In addition, the structure of the dialogues and the form of behavior in every possible way hinted that absolutely modern people were speaking on the screen, but for some reason in Soviet clothes, which led to some dissonance from viewing. The question is why it was impossible to come up with a story where, for example, the Soviet era is shown only within the teaser, when an accident allegedly occurred at the station due to a collision with a biological threat? In a hurry, the authorities decided to instantly seal the station with living people, and only then years later ordinary tourists heard human screams, which would have pushed the modern government to prepare a secret expedition. Based on this plot, the authors could easily explain the scale that the audience will see. And the screams are just a deceptive maneuver on the part of the antagonist, so that people themselves, by their own stupidity, open tightly sealed doors, thereby releasing pure evil.

Of course, the creators did everything possible to make the film as entertaining as possible, but too much timekeeping also noticeably erodes interest. And the point here is not even a large number of episodes, but in the artificial stretching of the scenes themselves. Within the framework of a short film, this definitely looks good, but in a full-length genre film, alas, there are slightly different patterns.

Summing up, we can say with confidence that, despite numerous scriptural and directorial flaws, the film is definitely worthy of attention, because there has never been anything like this in Russian cinema and it is not a fact that it will appear in the near future. So to see the first serious steps in such a complex subgenre as body horror, which is characterized by special attention to the human body and its transformations, it will be a great event for all moviegoers and lovers of Russian cinema. Happy viewing.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (56.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital: 5.1

Subtitles
English-SRT, German.