A doctor specializing in neurobehavioral science is sent to a remote facility, to study the sole survivor of a space mission that went horribly wrong. Little does she or the astronaut know, that he didn’t return home alone. Director Egor Abramenko delivers a suspenseful and gorrific thriller that was a great watch from start to finish.
Taking it’s cues from modern sci-fi such as ‘Arrival’ or Ex Machina’, this film is centered around the humanity of the astronaut. I really enjoyed the main character played by Oksana Akinshina. Her relationship and trust is almost too easily granted by the Colenel Semiradov (played by Fedor Bondarchuk) in allowing her contact with this other-worldly creature. The performance by Pyotr Fyodorov as Venshnyakov is very good. He plays well as the “hero” soldier that is having to deal with the creature living inside him. No, not like ‘Venom’, well, maybe a little.
The creature itself as far as design and horror is spectacular. Almost like if a Xenomorph inhabited a king cobra. I liked the design and how they explained it’s motivations and use of “show don’t tell” storytelling. When the gore and horror starts, it is engaging and suspensful as hell. Where the film lost me a little was in it’s predictability.
I think this was an impressive film overall, but I was able to figure out the plot before it was revealed and that is due to it not being completely original. the characters motives are predictable, so as the film goes along I had nothing to be surprised by. There are some surprises, but only in the first half of the film. From there it becomes a lot of what you’ve already seen in sci-fi horror.
Overall this is a strong film. I love the creature design, the camerawork and acting, but the story itself is weaker than I had wanted.
7.5/10