III: The Ritual

Saw this at the IMAGINE film festival 2015 in Amsterdam. Took its time to build up steam, yet not boring. "The ritual" as it was announced in the synopsis, was to be executed more than once, but I did not know that beforehand. After the first time, assuming it was the last and only, it felt as an anti-climax. Nothing nasty was revealed, and life seemed to go on as if nothing happened. I stood corrected when materializing more scary the second time, for me the real climax. But there was still more to come. Which dirty secret was revealed out of the third and last ritual, escaped me. Maybe executing the ritual three times was essential in itself, three (like seven) being a magical number in many such circumstances. Anyway, the film title III (Roman numerals, so not three capital I's) emphasizes implicitly that the number three is important. No other explanation for this film title springs to mind after having seen it from beginning to end.

The sound track supported the proceedings but was often too much on the foreground, to the extent that it took away my attention from what was happening. That may be a fault of my own, as I faintly recognized most of the music, and was distracted while trying to pinpoint what it was exactly. A professional film composer (I forgot his name) said once that a good sound track should be unobtrusive and hardly noticed, but I'm not sure his word is law under his colleagues.

All in all, I did not get what I anticipated, so a bit disappointed, but no compelling reason to ask my money back. I think there were ample ingredients left unused. One could have arrived at a more complex story and better execution, in addition to a few extra dramatic developments that were definitely needed. The semi-dark village, its people and its buildings bring in their twilight "horror" atmosphere almost by definition. I experienced most of the tension and creepiness while wandering through Mirra's subconsciousness, but not to its full potential. These scenes were visualized the same as dreams are usually shown, by enlarging external influences (e.g. banging on doors) and by slow-motion effects (e.g. dragging protagonist's walks, to never reach the intended destination). It usually works out on the viewer as artificial, and thus defeats its purpose altogether by setting the viewer on a distance rather than sucking him into the story. In a good Horror film such elements are presented in a subtle way, to involve us in the proceedings rather than distracting us. This movie fails halfway in this respect.

III is a mysterious and allegoric tale about two sisters, AYIA and MIRRA, who live in a little village infected by a contagious and fatal disease. After their mother's death MIRRA also falls ill and, helpless, her sister calls for Village's priest assistance. FATHER HERMAN (played by Evgeniy Gagarin) will help them but not in a conventional way...

I watched this film in a world première at FANTASPORTO (film festival from Oporto, my home town), precisely one year ago, in March 2015, and there were present the director, the producer and both actresses.

Visually the film is very strong and I must say I was impressed with its cinematography. From the mysterious and allegoric sets, the contrast dark vs light, to incredible shots of landscapes, everything looks visually beautiful. The ambiance created is very dark, intense and eerie but the characters are depressive and melancholic. Death surround them as they go deep on the dark side of their souls...

Two sisters, who have just lost their mother to an illness that has plagued their village, only have each other to lean on. When one of them becomes gravely ill and the villagers decide that those who are sick must be quarantined, the other turns to their priest for a place to hide. While caring for her sister, she comes across a strange book in the priest's home and learns there is a ritual that may help save her sister. She approaches the priest, who agrees to help, and they begin the ritual in which the healthy sister must enter her ill sister's subconscious. There she must find her sister's biggest fear and eliminate it to break the grip of the illness. The illness has taken over and made the ill sister's subconscious a dangerous and horrific place but the healthy sister is willing to brave it to save her sister. Will it work? This is your plot.

Let's start with the good things about this film. It is a visually appealing film. Some of the scenery is beautifully portrayed with nice reddish hues. Even the horror aspects of the film have been nicely done. The acting is quite well too and the story, while not a new idea, has a few changes from the norm. There's a twist.

The bad things. The pace is really slow but it does draw you into it. There's not a lot of character development and that takes away from your ability to become invested in the characters. The story needed some work. By that I mean not everything was explained to my liking and there were some situations that were sorta vital that lacked detail.

My take away from this is that it isn't an awful film. It had some problems but it held my interest. I'd like to give it 6.5 stars but we don't have that option here so I rounded up to a 7. I'm glad I checked it out.

Just got darker and darker. It might be difficult to find the movie under this title anywhere (the Germans just added a sub-title to it to make it easier), but if you find it, you might like its gritty, down and dirty style. The acting and the setup itself is pretty interesting, letting you in the dark for a long time, having to figure out what is going on and what's real and not.

Spiritual and different, this will either be a tease that tastes like something you like or will appall you. It won't be for the masses (obviously), but I do think that those who "get it" (even if it's repeated viewing that takes them there), will love it with all their heart

I must pinch myself, just to make sure I'm awake. *Pinch*. Talk about arrestingly hypnotic and abstract. And that's the contrasting imagery inside (dreams) and out (landscapes) of the subconscious. Watching "III" is like being caught in a trance. It's visually sublime captured by its elegant cinematography and otherworldly score, but frail storytelling does keep this grim, surrealistic Russian horror-fantasy from reaching great heights.

The style is in the same mould of such psychophysiology films ("The Cell" & "Horsehead") dealing with a journey into the subconscious mind. What transpires is rather sobering and haunting, but how the journey plays out is uniquely puzzling. The natural performances of Piling Davidova and Luibov Ignatushko do share a touching bond as the two sisters caught up in a sickness infecting their small village.