Route Configured, 2016
Andrei and Olga are a married couple with a charming five-year-old daughter. Andrei manages to buy a decent second-hand car for a very low price and the family heads off for an overnight trip to another city. A night-time journey in itself is always dangerous; after all, what if the driver falls asleep or fails to notice an obstacle on the road in the dead of night? Yet even scarier, more mystical unknowns await Andrei and Olga. They don’t know it yet, but a murder was previously committed in their car. The ghost of the dead woman torments the family on the long journey. All is not well between Andrei and Olga – Olga suspects her husband of infidelity, consuming antidepressants, and brewing scandal. The ghost hates domestic disputes and takes it upon herself to solve the family’s problems in her own way.
The Queen of Spades, 2015
While American teenagers summon Bloody Mary at night, Russians call upon their own demon from Alice in Wonderland – the Queen of Spades. The imagery of this dangerous ghost represented in the film originates from the novel of the same name by Pushkin.
A group of friends organizes a get-together at a friend’s house. Just to mess with one of the more superstitious girls there, they decide to conduct a special ceremony in front of a mirror to summon the evil Queen of Spades. At the last moment of the summoning, the children begin to hear noises in the room, when all of a sudden the door slams shut and the wardrobe opens all by itself. A couple of days later, Seryozha, one of the boys from the group, gets a severe fright when he sees the Queen of Spades in his mirror, and tries to find a way to get rid of the haunting demon. Will the youths be able to exorcise the spirit?
Gogol, the Beginning, 2017
The fate of the famous Russian writer has always been shrouded in mystery. Where did this genius get his ideas for such terrifying tales? From where did he draw inspiration for such lifelike depictions of demons? Is it possible that the man himself once came face-to-face with an evil spirit?
Gogol, the Beginning tells the story of the very start of Nikolai Vasilievich’s career as a clerk, where he is assigned the task of solving a criminal investigation. The young man encounters nothing but difficulties, passing out at a murder scene and writing a load of drivel from the chief investigator’s dictations. Only investigator Yakov Guro pays any attention to the young clerk’s unusual psychic ability to solve even the most complicated of crimes. Gogol’s adventures develop when he is drawn into a case in the town of Poltava, where locals claim that the Devil himself was involved in the murder of some girls.
The Bride, 2017
The Bride continues the traditional Russian love of gothic horrors. In the film, Nastya and her new husband visit his relatives in a small, almost abandoned town, which is planning to host a traditional family ritual using 19th century photographs showing corpses with painted eyelids. Will Nastya be able to escape her husband’s relatives?
Dislike, 2016
Dislike documents eight popular Russian video-bloggers who make plans to go to a country house to taste a new energy drink and make an advert for it. From the outset, this proves to be a living nightmare after a madman sporting a baby mask shows up and starts slicing them up one by one. The bloggers become part of a sick quiz in which there is only one question: “Who ordered your killing?” For each incorrect answer given, the madman kills one person from the group. This is a brilliant film from the “slasher” genre.