Otrazhenie tmy

This is one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. The acting is atrocious, as in, adult film-level acting. The movie barely counts as a horror movie since it's nothing more than jump scares and loud music, along with a nonsensical plot.

The voice dubbing is really off, as well, like not only is the acting bad but they had to dub the dialogue in for half of the scenes later, making it even worse. It's almost unbearable to watch.

The setting and environment were well done, which is the only reason it got a two stars instead of one. I kind of liked the cinematography and really wouldn't change it. Everything else about this movie need to be tossed in the garbage.

Of course I had never even heard about this 2024 Russian horror movie "Otrazhenie Tmy" (aka "Succubus") prior to sitting down to watching it. I happened to come across the movie by random chance, and given my love of all things horror, of course I opted to watch it without knowing what I was in for.

The storyline in the movie was rubbish. There was way too much focus on showing off nudity and sexual scenes. Sure, I get that a succubus is a seductress, but it was just laughable here. It felt like the storyline was written by a randy teenager with way too much hormones in his system. So writers Oleg Kurochkin and Dmitriy Zhigalov failed to conjure up a script and storyline that provided much entertainment for me. It was a slow paced and rather pointless narrative.

Given by extremely limited exposure to Russian cinema, then of course I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. Despite the fact that the storyline was rubbish, then the acting performances were actually fair.

For a horror movie, then "Otrazhenie Tmy" was a swing and a miss, it was unnecessarily sleazed up by the pointless nudity and sex scenes, and it wasn't a particularly scary movie in general.

There were a couple of interesting visual scenes, but it was nowhere enough to make it up for all the shortcomings of the movie.

"Otrazhenie Tmy" came and went without leaving a lasting expression on me, and it is definitely not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. Nor is it a horror movie that I would recommend to horror fans.

My rating of director Serik Beyseu's 2024 horror movie lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

Or poorly dubbed or AI or something. And the plot is all bad. Like written terribly by brainless people with no idea what a succubus is.

I am also pretty sure this was originally one of those "blue" movies that only adults could rent from the backroom of a video store. Remember them? What with the bad dialogue, atrocious acting, threadbare theme and clothelessness. Then they tried to give it some class by making it a less smutty horror movie.

Except it is VERY irritatingly stupid on every level. There were a couple of effects at the end that seemed okay. And the attire at the one EDM dance party was interesting.

But otherwise this is barely one step below amateur erotica while putting its foot in a steamy pile of dull communist horror.

Arriving at a remote retreat, several couples are greeted by the staff of the retreat and go about their series of tasks that are geared to heal their strained relationships, but when they start noticing odd behavior from the others, they are forced to deal with a demonic threat lording over everyone.

Overall, this one was a watchable if somewhat frustrating feature. One of the few enjoyable aspects here is a decent enough main storyline that has the potential to be much better yet still offers a lot to like. Providing a necessary framework for the group to arrive at the remote retreat as an excuse for everyone to work on their relationships together, it works well enough for what it's trying to do. Getting a chance to witness the various couplings and how they're intended to come together as a result of the program, there's a decent enough main story at work here before introducing the concept of the demonic figure that the operators of the facility control. This introduction and how it manifests on the others by imitating its victims to then turn into other variations of its kind through dark ritualistic ceremonies that are taking place on the island is a solid enough idea that offers up some intrigue before letting loose with the rampaging Succubus in the final half. These scenes are mildly interesting, with the figure skittling around the wooded landscape to pick off victims in some chilling sequences. That speaks highly to the extravagant production design and look of the film in general. There's quite a lot to like about how this one comes off with its Gothic presentation and general appearance, with the facility located in a striking woodland forest. The design of the dead trees, overgrown bramble, and immense layer of fog surrounding everything makes for an intriguing and chilling location. That allows for the fine visuals that come from the sightings of the creature hanging around the outskirts of the woods or coming across the hallways of the retreat, sneaking up on victims to take full advantage of the stellar production quality on display. Likewise, the finale in the ornate forest home of the Succubus where the spirits of it's past victims are kept until they're ready to strike back when the special method being used to stop the creature is put into action as the spectacular imagery of the twisted and gnarled forest where it takes place being just as important as the action of the scene. These factors give this some solid points. Outside of this, though, the film is a disjointed and underwhelming mess. The main drawback is that while the setup works to get the couples to the island retreat, it does nothing with them. There's only one mention of who the couples are and what they're at the retreat for, so other than the main girl, you forget their names immensely quickly. It doesn't help that an awful dub-track rather than proper subtitles was released or that the majority of the male cast look so similar it's hard to tell them apart and who's been converted by the Succubus. The purpose of the trip is quickly forgotten as none of the couples do anything that warrants them getting back together as the majority of their scenes together revolve around heatless erotic moments depicting the couples hooking up with each other. However, far too many of these scenes are too brief to generate any kind of steamy resolve and lack the quantity part to make everything exciting as well so that it ends up oddly feeling like an erotic-tinged genre piece that doesn't want to commit to these qualities in the long run. The other issue here is that the main demonic entity is egregiously mixed up with what the figure is supposed to be. Repeated mention is made of what the figure here should be, as the series of interactions is supposed to offer up a dark entity that feeds on people's deepest desires and carnal impulses. That means the full tends to revolve around just getting everyone into bed with each other, so there's not much special about it being present in this scenario. With the demon's influence not being important to the story, with everyone acting differently from how the influence is supposed to play out, that renders the fear qualities of this one to be quite low overall. Combined with one of the most unnatural and soulless English dubs that makes for a heartless quality to the material, which becomes far more offputting as it goes along, these end up being huge detriments for the film.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Nudity, several sex scenes, and Graphic Violence.

Dialogue is spaced out and broken up. It seems like a dub over being that the movie is full of a Russian cast, but I could tell by their lips that they were speaking English. I'm very confused.... Also it sounds like Ronda Rousey is doing the voice for the main woman with the mask on...lol. One last thing, did the little girl with the glazed over eyeballs really just yell out... "dang!". I can't stop watching this train wreck. I actually had to pause the movie 3/4 of the way through to give this review thus far. And I really still have no clue as to what in the heck is going on. I swear it sounds like somebody asked AI to make a movie and show some skin.