III: The Ritual

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.

This one was close to a 6 stars on my behalf, but I decided to bring it down to 5, purely on the plot. Coming out with great potential, it feels like it achieved so little, wanting so more, promising the same, but delivering far less.

Perhaps it was a hat too big for the producers, the director, but they surely enough prepared for the movie. The effects, tho lovely, are rare and short, and I think they could have stayed for a little longer. The soundtrack is beyond believable, you'll have to check it out for yourself in order to believe so.

The story, is good, but the execution feels rushed, like they really wanted to get somewhere, and they decided to do it while holding their breath. Still it was an awesome experience, I do recommend this little gem, try something different, you won't be disappointed.

Cheers!

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...

Russian horror flick but be aware that it isn't going to be a gory ride or a flick full of action going on. This is a slow moving flick but made with excellent cinematography.

It's all about possession in a small town were everybody is getting sick and two sisters are being involved in the sickness. One of them is getting sick up to the other to cure her with the help of a priest.

In fact, that is the story but the flick is full of creepy and weird shots. As said earlier the editing and the use of the camera was well done. But of course not everybody is into arty flicks. If you are into possession horror then this is a must see, if you are into gory flicks and can't stand slow moving flicks full of blah blah then leave it.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

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