Translated material
Basement please!
“Phobos. Club of Fear" on Moscow screens
First, a historical note: Phobos is one of the two satellites of Mars, named after the ancient Greek god of fear, the son of Ares and Aphrodite, who often accompanied his father in numerous battles. Phobos rotates around its axis with the same period as around Mars, so it always faces the same side towards it. The tidal influence of Mars gradually slows down its movement, which in the future will lead the satellite to fall onto the surface of the planet. Dimensions are 26.6x2.2x18.6 km. Phobos has no atmosphere.Choosing a name for his nightclub, an unpleasant major boy (Alexei Vorobyov), who hates when marks are left on the glass of his foreign cars, and with his hairstyle, jacket and general psychophysics looks like another rich son, a scoundrel-rapist from the cult film "Crash - daughter of a cop,” focused primarily on mythology. That is why the walls of his establishment are decorated with fearful monsters, and it itself is located in a former bomb shelter. One rainy evening, in an unfinished center of culture and recreation, the following company gathers - almost ideal for any horror film with a body countdown - the company: in addition to the rich man and his exalted bride (Tatyana Kosmacheva), a rogue administrator (Peter Tomashevsky) finds himself under the arches of Phobos. , trying to make money from everything, including stylish black urinals, but at the same time harboring hopes of becoming a manager; his sweetheart, a typical busty blonde (Renata Piotrovsky) with a goth girlfriend (Agniya Kuznetsova); a courageous, handsome foreman (Timofey Karataev), whose difficult past is made clear by the scars on his wrists; Finally, a DJ (Petr Fedorov), who is partial to stimulants prohibited by the Criminal Code, has finally arrived, almost to the point of being dissected.
Because of the DJ, in essence, it all started. Having secluded himself in the former command post of the bomb shelter, in order to “trigger his nostrils,” he accidentally presses an important red button, and the armored doors of Phobos automatically close. The situation becomes completely hopeless when an electrician who was trying to figure out the situation is electrocuted to death, and the Magnificent Seven are left in a bunker without light and in the company of a corpse. Pretty soon it becomes clear that for various reasons no one will be found outside, there is nowhere to wait for help, and mobile communications are powerless in the face of tons of reinforced concrete. Trying to find a way out, the company discovers that the shelter used to house a secret facility of the USSR Ministry of State Security, and one of the corridors ends with a real execution wall. A certain abstract and all-encompassing Fear as such roams through the corridors with a roar and roar. It turns out that all the prisoners of "Phobos" have their own phobias - some have fire, some have water, some have dead people - which immediately make themselves felt. And the chances of salvation are getting less and less.
It’s probably impossible to say that Oleg Asadulin’s film (who made his feature-length debut in Germany last year with the horror film “Locked”), like his space namesake, “lacks atmosphere.” There is a certain amount of quite digestible suspense on the screen, although these moments are predictable down to the microsecond. The problem is different: with regret we have to watch how a truly powerful theme ends up buried under a pile of cliches borrowed from overseas analogues. Bolts spontaneously fly out of their sockets, wires twist into loops and snares, and ominous streaks of otherworldly mold crawl along the walls - just like in any of the four “Destinations,” which clearly served as an all too obvious source of inspiration for the creators of “Phobos.” And even the name of the film in the credits is replaced by a nightclub sign, making one remember a similar beginning in “Hostel”. And the final plot somersault (it is indecent to reveal it, although on the other hand it is no less indecent to use it) cannot be called exclusive. And this despite the fact that the heroes of “Phobos” find themselves in a space where it is simply impossible not to create a truly original, effective and, most importantly, original horror film. Catacombs of a secret facility from the time of the cult of personality, tables covered with green cloth, cabinets filled to the brim with expired psychotropic drugs and gas masks, automatic crossbows, secret documents in stacks and a portrait of Stalin on the wall - it seems that in such an impeccable setting (excellent work by artists Ronald Kohlmann and Aina Nurmela) it is simply impossible not to come up with a story disturbing the shadows of the hidden imperial occultism with the restless shadows of Gleb Bokiy and other red warlocks roaming the corridors of the bunker. Even if not quite seriously (although why not), even if in the grotesque spirit of Kim Newman’s story “Dead Americans in the Moscow Morgue”, but neglecting such a texture seems almost criminal. However, the circumstances of the place turn out to be completely undeveloped, and the viewer has to observe a completely sterile scheme, in which psychologism is replaced by maxims like “this is such pain - when there was love, and then it’s gone,” and visceral horror - convulsive attempts to remember, where exactly (and, in fact, very recently) this or that horror story was used. There is, perhaps, only one thing that pleases us - because of the same somersault mentioned above, the production of a sequel to “Phobos” becomes impossible. So, willy-nilly, you will have to come up with something new next time. And if possible, your own.