Rusalka: Ozero myortvykh (2018) Reviews

• Don't waste your time and money

  rrosmarinus2019-01-26

  Poor script, poor acting, poor end. No logic in the story. Story doesn't fit reality in a logical way. Too many predictable scare jumps, many if them too obvious.

• Great movie, sadly with some big flaws

  Finfy2018-12-16

  The movie is based heavily on the Rusalka, the Russian fairy-tale version of a mermaid. They often are unmarried women who commit suicide and drown their victims or tickle them to death. Sadly no one is tickled to death in this movie, but it is very accurate in its depiction of Rusalka. The acting is above average, and the casting choices are great. The main actress Viktoriya Agalakova, is very convincing and emotional. I also love the casting choice for the "mermaid". Sofia Shidlovskaya has an ethereal air to her and every time she is on the screen without some weird CG effects, she is convincing. The "bride" in one pivotal scene is very distracting in her bland and emotionless acting and sadly badly voiced as well. The voice acting in general can be a little bit distracting, especially with Romas best friend Ilya, who has a stereotypical bully voice which does not fit his character in my opinion. Other than that exception the English voice acting is solid. Now to my biggest gripe with this movie: the CG and storytelling. The CG is simply terrible. It would have been much more effective to do only a bit of SFX make up reminiscent to the movie poster. The worst mistakes are the completely unnecessary jumpscares. The movie does so well to build up tension and atmosphere through its great direction and pictures, but simply ruins it with every jumpscare thrown in your face. This movie did not need any of them to be a dark fairy-tale. The script had a lot of potential. It has a solid ending and takes up points made throughout the movie to tie them all up in the end, like Marina jumping into the water to save Roma or hair having special powers. I however, do not like how the movie was structured. We "beat" the mermaid far too many times with several red herrings throughout the movie, before her curse is eventually lifted for good. It's a shame these mistakes weight so heavy while the rest of the execution of the movie is great

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• Way too many unnecessary jump scares!!!

  dr_hhlee2018-07-25

  As title of my reviews, I thought that there were way too many unnecessary jump scares in the movie... it's like you're trying to watch '50 shades of gray' to anticipate some sexiness but in reality you're watching scary Russian porno... the origin of the "mermaid" (at this point I'm not even sure that's the right word for it... more like a vengeful spirit) who commited suicide in the lake, but how would there be a tombstone in the lake for her? If the ritual to trade love One with her comb didn't work, why would her tombstone cracked & fall apart? There should be a serious look again at the script...

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• The movie is good, but they kinda overdone it a bit.

  Aktham_Tashtush2018-12-09

  I don't know if it's the scares themselves or because i watched it dubbed and not in Russian ,, but it kinda felt overdone ,, A lot of scares ,, i mean the graphics and cinematography are good but there were so many jumpy moments by the end of the movie the scares felt like just any other normal scene. The plot is semi-genuine, somewhat familiar,, the casting as of the Russian cast looked fine , but as i said sadly all the engagement and interaction thrill factors are lost when you watch it dubbed to English. So i would say it's not highly recommended, especially not in English.

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• Where is the mermaid??

  nethy-nho2019-03-01

  The movie had a mythology that could be more explored, but moves on without explications, hide too much the "mermaid" and she don't scare as well, although, had some technics that works pretty great, the characters aren't explored and some times stay boring, the twist in end is ok, and the song of the credits is amazing!

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