The SUPERDEEP - Movie Review
How do you make The Thing more depressing? Make it Russian!
I have to completely honest. I have enjoyed Russian Cinema in the last five or six years. Are the movies always good? Absolutely not, but are they fun? Oh yes. From Sex Competition 2 (Russian title = Chto tvoryat muzhchiny! 2, I’m 100% sure there’s a lot lost in translation on that one.) to the hilariously awful Guardians (The Russian Avengers with he bear man), these movies are fun. They are the complete opposite of the Russian culture I was exposed to during my school years. Have worked and performed in theater for the majority of my life I was exposed to Nabokov, Ostrovsky, and the like. Most people will have been forced to read Tolstoy at some point in their life. I was forced to read his entire catalog between Sophomore and Junior year. Not fun. Why? Because Russia was and still is a terrible awful place. I have friends who grew up in communist Russia and have told me horrifying stories of the atrocities they witnessed. The earmark of all Russian media for the majority of human history has been depression, alcoholism, and death. So, with that out of the way, on to our movie of the night, The SUPERDEEP. I know, I know, it sounds like something you’d find on 90’s Cinemax at 1am, but hear me out.
The film is set in a real facility in northern Russia, the Kola Superdeep Borehole. You may not know the name, but you’ve probably heard the myth that’s grown around this specific Russian research station. The USSR drilled 7.619 miles into the earth, stopping only when the temperatures reached 356 degrees Fahrenheit, oh and because of the horrifying demonic screaming that began to rise alongside the searing hot vapors. No joke, Youtube it. Near the end of the Cold War, the site was abandoned due to the collapsing economy of the USSR. This film is set just before that point.
A Yugoslavian Epidemiologist whose last assignment from the KGB was to develop a vaccine that ended up killing her entire team due to skipping over normal testing guidelines is called to serve her overlords yet again. This time they need her to jump on a plane on New Year’s Eve and fly to a secret research base at the bottom of the deepest borehole in the world. The details beyond that are kept secret until it’s too late to turn back. Why would she do this, you ask? Because it was the USSR. Sure, they offer to make her the head of the Russian version of the CDC, but they also threatened to execute her previously when she tried to say no to a job.
So, there she is, the only woman surrounded by Russian secret police and soldiers of the Russian army. Did I mention she’s drop dead gorgeous? Now, before you say, how many epidemiologists look like her, let me go ahead and call you a dick. Then, let me explain why it a purposeful move. I was on the edge of my seat before shit got weird, purely because I was worried that the Russian soldiers (who raped more people than they massacred, which is saying something) were going to abuse her. I won’t spoil if it came to fruition or not, so you can sweat like I did.
Anyway, once our heroine Anya, played by Milena Radulovic, gets into the giant hole, things get weird quick. This movie is an incredibly well done mix of sci-fi / body horror hits. It’s got shades of The Thing, The Ruins, and Outbreak. It’s real strange, but they explain every single piece of it scientifically. It’s actual a believable threat that we could see at some point. Maybe not in the form of a giant flesh golem, but still. It’s an original premise that feels fresh. It’s not like Harbinger Down, which just feels like a Thing fan film. I know people love that movie, but come on, it’s the Thing without Kurt Russell… I don’t think I need to say anything more. The special effects were totally different than similar films like Harbinger Down and Virus. The monstrous infection is fungal based. So, its various dark colors along with bioluminescence. There are some stomach churning scenes of practical effects including a woman whose back morphed into a giant pustule that sprays black mold spores like a firehose.
It’s not a perfect film by any means. There is a lot of downtime that could have been cut to make it much more intense, but I can understand the character building they wanted to achieve. The runtime is 1 hour 55 minutes. It easily could have been cut down to 90 minutes and still been a solid film. Also, I don’t know if it was just the version I watched on Shudder, but the English Dub is slightly off. For those of you who don’t watch a Giallo a day like I do, it could be off putting.
I looked on IMDB and saw the rating was low, 4.8 out of 10 currently, but I also see a lot of horror fans giving the film thumbs up, despite the critics reviews. The biggest drags on the film are that its Russian, which I completely understand. As I said, Russia is a horrible place that punishes people for loving someone of the same sex, I get it. The other big knock I see in critics reviews is that its too much like the Thing. That I have an issue with. I went into the film expecting a Russian knock-off, but what I got was something unexpected. An actual, honest to God, decent Russian Film.
Wonders Never Cease.
