Somewhere in Russia, 1966. (FOUR TWO!! FOUR TWO!!) A woman pulls up at an isolated farm in a truck. When the farmer opens the truck door, the woman has blood on her and there are two babies on the passenger seat beside her.
Forty years later and a film producer living in America, Marie Jones (Anastasia Hille – hot), one of the aforementioned babies, returns to Russia to the dilapidated property once owned by her mother, first meeting a strange ‘double’ of herself and then her twin brother, the other baby, Nicolai (Karel Roden) for the first time. She learns from Nicolai that their mother was stabbed.
Honestly, this is fucking fantastic. It’s beautifully filmed (the locations are incredible) and the acting is exceptional from both leads. It never drags and it is scary. I think what I most admired was the way we’re plunged into the weirdness very early on; this would be when Marie first meets her double. It could have strung us out in some clichéd guessing game for most of the film but it’s so much better than that and that’s what makes it a great watch.
I genuinely felt spooked throughout as I wondered what the fuck was going on while lapping up the spookiness and the locations/skill utilising those locations; wonderful. It’s what I love most personally, subtle and engrossing. It’s all about atmosphere in this one and I can appreciate proper atmos, told well, till the cows come home myself. It’s proof that there are other supernatural tales to tell, apart from the standard demon possession or haunted house scenarios which, while I love usually, always make me yearn for something different; now and again films like that come along and this is one of them.
Is there a payoff? Well, I enjoyed this film to its conclusion which I felt was consistent to the rest. You be the judge.
