Superdeep

When I read the synopsis for this 2020 movie titled "Superdeep" (aka "Kolskaya sverhglubokaya"), I must admit that I was immediately interested, as the movie sounds rather interesting. So as I had the chance to sit down to watch "Superdeep" here in 2021, of course I did so.

I must say that "Superdeep" is a movie that will find some appeal to fans of John Carpenter's "The Thing", as there are some interesting similarities between the two movies.

However, "Superdeep" just doesn't really match "The Thing" in terms of intensity or entertainment value. Now, don't get me wrong here, because "Superdeep" is definitely a watchable movie, but writer and director Arseny Syuhin just didn't have the same ability as John Carpenter to make this into an equally entertaining and disturbing movie.

What "Superdeep" was lacking was that sense of isolation, hopelessness and cosmic dread that "The Thing" had to it, and it was showing on the screen. Sure, I managed to sit through the entire movie, but I was only adequately entertained. However, "Superdeep" is not a movie that warrants a second viewing, as it just didn't have the contents to its storyline for more than a single viewing.

The acting in the movie were good, and it was rather nice to get to sit down and watch a movie like this without having familiar faces on the screen.

Something that was holding the movie back was the fact that it was a rather generic, linear and predictable movie. Writer and director Arseny Syuhin just didn't throw any curveballs to the audience along the way, much to a greater disappointment actually.

"Superdeep" is definitely winning points on its special effect and visual effects. The creature design was rather interesting, and the scenes where the people finally give into the spores is just amazing. Those scenes by themselves makes it well worth sitting down to watch "Superdeep".

Ultimately, while "Superdeep" was watchable, it was just not a memorable or outstanding sci-fi horror experience. It was a shame, though, because there definitely was a lot of untapped potential here in the movie.

My rating of the 2020 movie "Superdeep" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

The movie does take its sweet time - if you excuse the pun. But once it gets going ... well it is what you could hope for, for a low budget horror movie. Although I'm not even sure how low budget this was. But I think it is safe to assume it wasn't anywhere near any Hollywood horror movie blockbuster money they had to their disposal - not just because this is Russian.

So if you got through the slow first part of the movie, that sets up the rest of it ... congratulations! You have to have a love for horror and creature features to be honest - but why else would you be here if that wasn't true?

The setting is a great place for a horror film with the real life stories that emerged from the borehole. Its debated whether the recording of voices is real or not, but with the Russians, its hard to tell facts from fiction. Anyway the movie keeps a good pace. Standard horror movie idiot characters of course. If they had expanded a bit of the plot it would have rounded this film out nicely. Felt the story was a bit rushed. Decent film though. Deserves a higher rating than the current 4.9.

Just watch Blomkamp´s Zygote on Youtube instead. Same thing without the filler, and the monster is way creepier.

Apparently this was made for $4 million which whilst is a heck of an achievement did hinder it somewhat. The basis for the story is good and lends itself a lot to 'The Thing' in many respects but could have been fleshed out a little more. Probably the biggest grievance I had is the editing, it really needed a lot more work & professionalism in places as one scene would jump to another and you'd be left confused as to what had actually happened. Minor niggles would be the subtitling (I don't speak Russian) which lost a little in translation, the lighting in some scenes which was just too dark and some plot elements (a trained scientist walking unprotected into a room which is clearly a biological hazard?) we're just dumb. With a bit more time and money it would have earned a 7 out of 10 from me.