A haunted hitman whose violent career has taken a toll on his mental health turns to trepanning as a means of relieving his growing anxiety.A haunted hitman whose violent career has taken a toll on his mental health turns to trepanning as a means of relieving his growing anxiety.A haunted hitman whose violent career has taken a toll on his mental health turns to trepanning as a means of relieving his growing anxiety.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe main character, the Hitman, was originally meant to be played by Svyatoslav Iliyasov. But shortly before the filming started he got involved in a street fight and had his jaw dislocated. As a result, he had to spend some time in hospital. Unable to postpone the filming, director Andrey Iskanov decided to cast the film's composer Alexander Shevchenko instead.
- GoofsIn some scenes we can see in window and mirror reflections of Svyatoslav Iliyasov, who holding the light.
- ConnectionsReferences Xtro (1982)
Featured review
Nails (Gvozdi) is one of a series of surreal, psychedelic, gore movies called HalluCinoGeNnN, by Russian director Andrey Iskanov.
I normally tire very quickly of surreal movies, as my simple brain just doesn't function when having to decipher metaphors and imagery. Sit me in front of something like Eraserhead, and I'll be reaching for the 'off' switch faster than you can say "lady in the radiator".
Nails had an altogether different effect. I couldn't drag myself away from it, even though it was miles away from the standard movie format. Iskanov has made clever use of both monochrome and colour filming, to represent the two stages of the hit-man's life. The movie opens in black and white, during his 'tortured' phase and just after the first batch of nails goes in, it switches to colour as his outlook on life has greater clarity. The constant industrial noise in the soundtrack fades away to comfortable peace and quiet, as he starts this new phase.
As the hit-man sees the essence of life more clearly, even the most mundane things begin to take a different form. His food no longer looks tasty and delicious, instead it shows its true form as processed junk. Each can the hit-man opens contains something more disgusting than the last penis soup anyone? He begins to see himself and his girlfriend as they truly are; soulless plastic mannequins with no purpose other than to end life. Perhaps it is the true vision of his life that drives him further to keep using the nails and finally the drill. Imagine the scene in Evil Dead 2, where Ash goes mad and all the furniture taunts him. Then multiply it by ten and make it last for an hour that's pretty much how Nails plays out. It's like a hybrid of the cyberpunk violence of Tetsuo and the work of Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromatik, Der Todesking).
You don't watch Nails, you experience it.
I normally tire very quickly of surreal movies, as my simple brain just doesn't function when having to decipher metaphors and imagery. Sit me in front of something like Eraserhead, and I'll be reaching for the 'off' switch faster than you can say "lady in the radiator".
Nails had an altogether different effect. I couldn't drag myself away from it, even though it was miles away from the standard movie format. Iskanov has made clever use of both monochrome and colour filming, to represent the two stages of the hit-man's life. The movie opens in black and white, during his 'tortured' phase and just after the first batch of nails goes in, it switches to colour as his outlook on life has greater clarity. The constant industrial noise in the soundtrack fades away to comfortable peace and quiet, as he starts this new phase.
As the hit-man sees the essence of life more clearly, even the most mundane things begin to take a different form. His food no longer looks tasty and delicious, instead it shows its true form as processed junk. Each can the hit-man opens contains something more disgusting than the last penis soup anyone? He begins to see himself and his girlfriend as they truly are; soulless plastic mannequins with no purpose other than to end life. Perhaps it is the true vision of his life that drives him further to keep using the nails and finally the drill. Imagine the scene in Evil Dead 2, where Ash goes mad and all the furniture taunts him. Then multiply it by ten and make it last for an hour that's pretty much how Nails plays out. It's like a hybrid of the cyberpunk violence of Tetsuo and the work of Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromatik, Der Todesking).
You don't watch Nails, you experience it.
Details
Box office
- Budget
- RUR 10,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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