Entertainment Earth

6/14/2021

Superdeep (Review)

Director: Arseny Syuhin
Writers: Samuel Stewart Hunter (English adaptation), Arseny Syuhin
Cast: Milena Radulovic, Sergey Ivanyuk, Nikolay Kovbas, Vadim Demchog, Kirill Kovbas
Year: 2020
Min: 113

Anya (Milena Radulovic), a Russian expert on infectious diseases, is called to help with a deep, underground, and massive Soviet research facility, named Kola Superdeep. She goes in with a team to find out what has happened there, since they haven't heard from the stationed team. What they discover is a deadly and contagious, fungal organism that infects the body and spreads all over it, mutating the host's body into hideous and grotesque forms. And, if it ever got out would ravage the world.

Superdeep is a Russian sci-fi/ horror movie from director, co-writer Arseny Syuhin that is very loosely based on the real life Soviet Kola Superdeep Borehole. This body horror and contingent flick is in English, which should help to please those that hate reading subtitles. The movie is also a monster film and takes in elements from Alien, Aliens, and The Thing. Unfortunately, it never reaches the quality of any those movies.

To its advantage, it is a very good looking movie. The cinematography by Hayk Kirakosyan is gorgeous. Particularly beautiful are the cinematic shots of the snow covered environment outside of Superdeep. The film, overall, has some good production values helping to enhance the visual appeal of the film. 

The acting is decent enough. Though, it is the absolutely gorgeous Milena Radulovic who is given the most to do. As lead character, Anya, she provides us with a strong and likable performance, and, at the very least, we care what happens to her. Unfortunately, the other characters are somewhat thinly written and harder for us to give a flying fuck what occurs to them.

The gore is definitely alright. But, it is the body horror aspect that gives the movie its most horrific visuals. The FX are good, and while it takes an hour and a half for us to see the monster, it does look cool. At least as much as we are able to see of it, hanging a nightmarish appearance to it that pleased this creature lover.

The movie's biggest problem is its pacing. And, at an hour and fifty-three minutes it feels terribly overlong. It stretches the thin plot to its maximum capacity. A simple story in a film like this isn't inherently bad, witness similarly themed flicks. But, when stretched out in the manner that it is here, it does the movie no favors.

There is a really cool concept here. One that even if not the freshest, was enough to keep me intrigued, at least at the start of the film. But, the flick ultimately drags. I kept thinking something exciting would happen, but it never really does. One of the movie's most potentially thrilling scenes, involving Anya and extreme heat, is dragged out so much that it takes away any of the nail-biting power it should have had. The movie simply never takes full advantage of its own premise and doesn't give us the suspense, intensity, action, or horror that this story should have. 

Superdeep is, from a purely technical aspect, competently made. The film has good production values and solid FX. The acting is mostly just OK, though lead Radulovic is quite good. The idea of this infectious and deadly contingent is an interesting one and feels quite relevant to today's world. Unfortunately, it never reaches its full potential. The movie is dragged out and way too long, for its own good. It also lacks any real tension or suspense. Superdeep will begin streaming exclusively on Shudder this Thursday, June, 17, 2021.



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