I will say right away that the film is not so bad, as a person who saw this creation only in 2020, I am very surprised that it turns out that not so bad Russian films were shot in 2008. The film has not just a bunch of minuses, definitely there are good sides, but they look just negligible against the background of all the rest of the nonsense.
I like the idea, quite original. When you think about what inspired the creators of this film, instantly come to mind ' Grave seekers', also an abandoned area, also a TV show.
In my opinion, the film should have been more emphasis on the atmosphere of the bygone Soviet time. The film is called Abandoned Pioneer Camp. That's it. We could pick up some thematic music, or somehow create an atmosphere of bygone time. And so, it turns out, the location of the film could be made any abandoned building, the essence does not change.
Now for the bad:
- Music.
Who was responsible for the music in this movie? It's good in some places, it's terrible in some places, and I just want to turn it off. But something, but the music here almost always plays at the wrong moments. It should create an atmosphere of tension, escalate the situation, tickle the nerves. Instead, it is turned on at completely calm moments, as a background.
- Characters.
The performance and ' disclosure' of the characters at the beginning of the film is just awful. I don't understand why these inserts with half-naked people? Suppose someone likes it, but not me.
The characters are very poorly revealed. Several necessary characters will be revealed as the plot develops, which is actually bad, because the rest of such attention will not be paid, and it is immediately clear who will survive at the end: a very well-disclosed character, or some brainless person, about whom we will hear a couple of phrases as the film progresses.
- Acting.
Probably the worst thing about this movie. Actors are just godlessly overplaying. They scream for a minute without reason. In a minute, Karl! Some people get very angry (I mean the guy in the jeans), some people can’t play the fear.
- Plot.
If you are trying to delve into the plot, prepare yourself for the fact that you will have to think out half of the plot twists and forks yourself, because the writers simply did not do this. I don’t know how to write without spoilering this ' a beautiful plot ' just look for yourself, and you will understand everything, no doubt.
What did you do well?
Murder. Of course, it's a slasher, yes, stupid, yes, with bad actors and plot. But murders, murders are really good here, even though they look stupid in some places. But in the end, it's a stupid slasher!
What do we get? Medium quality idea, familiar to those who watched the film ' Grave Seekers', disgusting acting, terrible music, not the best disclosure of characters, quite good scenes of murder (I was most interested in the scene with the first murder, the feeling that shot cannibals from the first part ' Turn the wrong way'). As I said, there are advantages, but the disadvantages cover them completely.
Let's deal with Anfisa Chekhova, damn it. Anfisa has two giant talents, but to appreciate them, you don’t need to include “S.S.D.” Why? We live in the age of the Internet, everyone has access to a search engine. Therefore, Anfisa Chekhov is a sluggish lure. And she plays (by standard) disgustingly. Closed the topic.
At the time of the release of the film S.S.D., there were real people who seriously believed that Russian cinema was waking up. Finally, our directors began to turn to horror. And with "S.S.D." in general an interesting thing, because it was made according to old Soviet horror stories. Blood from the ears, listen to such heresy.
Of course, as a child I read various creepy stories (about the coffin on wheels), they are really cool. Only what is the point in them, if we have a terrible slash about young dull minds who were shoved into a pioneer camp (under the cover of a new reality show) and began to cut one by one. They could have been killed (without these stories). False nonsense.
Plus, the writers wove a mystique. Why? For those who have seen the movie, please explain. I don't understand. Another (attracted by the ears) buffoon? I guess. Back to the slasher. When you drive people into an enclosed space, you must (no, you must) make your audience believe that heroes cannot get out of there. You don't believe me!
Leave these excuses about the closed gates and the evil two barbos to yourself. Heroes more than 10 people (think, more than 10). Like I said above, it's hard. Excuse me for calling the S.S.D. slasher. He is more suited to a word that begins with the letter G. The gross characters, the vile main antagonist (you saw his mask, a-ha-ha). There are bloody scenes.
I don't know about you, but I certainly haven't given up on such horrors. Man, the slasher of 1987’s “Slaughterhouse” is no actors, no director, no writer, no budget. They did it well (not ingeniously, but ingeniously). We're false in every way. I'm disappointed!
P.S.
And this music, the vomiting lump comes to the throat. It should be put in place, no, no, no, no, no.
3.5 out of 10
S.S.D. did not justify my fears and turned out to be an unexpectedly decent attempt to bring the thriller to a fairly simple note. I don’t remember how the history of slashers began with us, but they say that this film was the first attempt, probing the ground.
There is nothing terrible here, there are almost no screamers, but there is still logic - both narratives and murders. The soundtrack is not so, but any atmosphere supports; the camera work is some twitchy, the angles are sometimes frankly bad. And acting is pretty good. For the most part, these were the guys from the once popular series “Club” and “Anfis Chekhov”, whose character arc of character took place more than the others. Everyone knows their faces, they played well. And the plot, based on old camp horror stories, is somewhat reminiscent of “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th”, although mostly it is, of course, “Scream”.
What was bad was how early the villain maniac was leaked, although there were some surprises. And the finale, which is not only strange for a standard slasher, but also stupid for some. And so, quite normal dynamic film: not a masterpiece, but not a badge.
7 from 10
The beginning was promising, but as it often happens to develop the initial interest of directors in roles that are not suitable for them, it does not work.
First of all, we have an attempt to remove a slasher, which was not inferior to English analogues, performed by a little-known director Vadim Shmelev. As a result, as for the first pancake, “Death to Soviet Children” turned out to be relatively good, but with a lot of flaws.
The first and most important are the actors, many of the guys who in the film are repeatedly called children over 30 and look older than Anfisa Chekhov, who played the role of the host of a certain reality show, an analogue of the once popular program The Last Hero. Anfisa herself played well, but in the end she began to overplay much, which spoiled the positive attitude towards her character. A couple of words about “children.” What a wooden actors, and if you consider that there are already ten people, then everything in this plan looks simply horrifying. If you call the best, then perhaps it is Eugenia Brik, playing Yana, who at least did not overplay the constant screams. Absolutely the worst, in my subjective opinion, was Ivan Nikolaev. His Egor is simply no and for an hour and a half of timekeeping, the viewer will not see more than one normal emotion in his performance.
The plot, in turn, is classic for most slashers. A maniac, victims, an abandoned location, in this case an old camp. The killings throughout are consistent with the legends told in the camp a quarter of a century ago. Although, seriously, this storyline is relevant only at first, because by half the film about this feature, the audience does not even remember. The murders are classic and already boring for fans of this genre. And the mystical line simply does not fit into the overall narrative.
The film is not bad and for viewing the company is fine.
What does the abbreviation for the title of the film mean? "Death to Soviet Children"? What's this about?
It's starting out okay. Ten different people and director are sent to a former pioneer camp for filming in some reality show. It would seem, live and rejoice. But the gates of the camp are closed, and the audience can see the first death. By the way, the variety of deaths is one of the few pluses of this film. The reasons are often quite questionable.
Incredibly annoying predictiveness. And everything is predictable in the film: from plot twists to the settlement of heroes. A mixture of mysticism is completely useless. The whole movie is full of stamps. The climax is dead. Thank you, although the scheme with camp horror stories brings at least a little interest to the picture.
Most of the actors are simply miserable. Middle play only Dmitry Kubasov, Stanislav Erdley, Anfisa Chekhov. The latter could appreciate higher, but in the end she buried herself with insanely unnatural fear and a cry of fear. Ivan Nikolaev played the worst. He's not an actor. It's not clear what.
Bad movie. Unnecessary movie. I do not recommend anyone to watch.
These are the Russian attempts to shoot horror stories.
To be honest, I have never been a fan of such a genre in the cinema as horror, but recently I have been pulling...
The viewing experience of horror stories I have not much and still like when a horror film really tickles my nerves.
Of course, mostly I watched foreign chilling films, but then I came across the horrors of Russian origin. I learned (like thunder from a clear sky) that the domestic film industry has also decided not to lag behind in this direction.
So, a Russian horror film with a mysterious title "S.S.D."
The film is about high-aged children who decided to participate in a reality show to earn easy money. Well, what, and have fun, and there will be a chance to light up on the screen-hapnesh of fame, and maybe “grandmother” hapne, if lucky! Alas, everything went wrong almost from the first minutes of their stay in the abandoned camp, where the filming of the show was supposed to take place. The rules of the game have changed, the life of each member of the group is at stake.
Well, what to say... boring and... not scary. Well, Russians do not know how to be completely cruel, all the horrors of the film remain behind the scenes and dissolve in the dark. Skin bumps are not guaranteed if you are a connoisseur of this genre. You can look at it once and then “one eye”.
This film directed by Vadim Shmelev was the first Russian film shot in the genre of “youth slasher”, so there was interest in it. The film was released in 2008, but at the box office did not pay off. The film has a rather intriguing story, but it was shown somehow predictable, quite fleeting. The events were banal and there was a feeling of eternal déjà vu.
In this story, we see an abandoned pioneer camp. It decided to hold a reality show with five girls and five guys who will live here under the gaze of a sexy TV presenter. Every week someone had to leave and the winner would get a cash prize. Everything went wrong on the first day, when it turned out that there is a sophisticated maniac in the camp, killing young people right and left, and he will not let anyone out of here.
Slasher turned out tough with a bit of mysticism. And the theme of this story, concerning mysticism, was quite creepy. "Have you seen him?" It was really bad at the end of the movie. I think this youth horror film will only be to the taste of those who love this genre. The film is merciless and cold. Many sophisticated deaths, shocking moments. Slasher became the first in the Russian box office, but something he lacked - or rather a good and thoughtful hand of the director.
Many young Russian actors played in the film, but the attention of the young audience was exclusively on Anfisa Chekhova. As always in the genre of such a film there is a scene with a shower and a naked woman. Of all the young actors, the game was most inspired by Dmitry Kubasov.
To shoot a high-quality and action-packed slasher, so that it was original and tenacious is far from easy. The attempt was a failure, everything looked predictable, but in world cinema there are not so many really good and cult, youth horror films. The most common is mediocrity and one-off cinema.
S.S.D. is a Russian, youth horror film with a taste of mysticism in 2008. The movie is action-packed, but disposable, sometimes extremely banal. The most memorable theme with a mystical something in the photo. I don’t think I’d want to see this movie a second time and wouldn’t dare anyone to recommend it, unless it’s really a youth horror movie.
Horror stories of Soviet childhood, shock nostalgia or a story about us?
I've never been to a pioneer camp. And I thought it was some kind of fabulous place, because I'm not allowed there, a paradise for children.
According to the stories of friends, it turned out that I am a bitter man, who missed the most interesting things in my life - terrible-terrible stories in the terrible-terrible darkness, told in a terrible-terrible voice of some "non-pedagogical" pioneer leader, with a terrible-terrible purpose (of which, of course, no one guessed): so that the pioneers would not walk away after the day off, so that some coffin would not roll...
That’s how (or roughly so) it would be worthwhile to start a text about “SSD” if I liked the director’s solution to all of our favorite horror tales. However, I was more concerned with the script. So I'll start this way.
I definitely have a bad sense of humor, since after watching the film the question matured - in the form of a sickle and a hammer weight. “Sovetsky” – is this a very terrible word?
Does it scare you, for example? Soviet camp? Soviet childhood? A Soviet maniac with a sickle? The Soviet horror story? Soviet song as a background for gurgling blood? Anyway, and (especially after "Cargo 200") for horror movies we have the word, it turns out, the most appropriate.
I guess I'm cycling. Cycling, of course! But recently there are a lot of such stories - "horror stories of the Soviets" that is.
Whatever blood is shed there, what lives are not destroyed, what heads are neither mad nor shot...
But this "Soviet" story is more honest - it is about us.
Because if you throw aside the nostalgic tales that smell of blood and semolina porridge (by the way, what was there, in the camps, they gave?), then there will be only a vile reality that scares more than a cute pioneer-producer with his heart-wrenching story of rebirth from a naughty burrow-eared boy into a presentable maniac-theoretic with a philosophical “insulation” (two hearts – dead and alive – this is not a joke ... and not even Sigmund Freud).
Fantastic horror stories of the Soviet pioneer camp, told and animated inside more than a real horror story of a showbiz camp for post-post- (how many are these post-?)-Soviet children, who are expensive to sell and who are profitable to sell - the story is clearly not one-layered and ... symptomatic.
Question: Which children are worse, dead or corrupt? Which device is worse – a coffin on wheels or a radio microphone that can not be turned off even in the toilet? Which game is more frightening - ripened in the muddled head of a maniac or in the pragmatic and money-consuming head of an S-TV producer? And isn't it a coincidence in the film that it's one face - one mask?
The last game is rehearsed from start to finish and the winner is the exception. The first, probably a little fairer, it has at least an element of randomness and the strongest (or the smartest, or lucky... or at least someone!) can still win, and the judge in the game is much more impressive – death, not the voting audience.
Remember the remark of the boy who eventually survived (because he was the only hero?), the line uttered over the dead body of the first postpioneer killed? To someone’s question, “What will happen now?” he replies, “There will definitely be no money.” This is not “blue nail”, not “red curtains” and not even “children’s barbecue”. This phrase is more entertaining and scary than the most terrible horror story. And it can only be answered with the last remark of the very first killed - Fedi: "Spee to everyone!"
And this letter, that is, the SSD, of course, came.
Alex! I really, really, really treat you well. And the gentle, trembling girl's hand reaches up. 4th vote against Alex. Four out of seven chose Gothophrenic.
What do you really want to do?
Vote against a person or see a maniac who will do everything to neither the money nor the career for which you came here, you did not have ... and you were not?
Boys and girls, welcome to the show.
You're monsters! Animals! To get on TV, you're ready to bite each other's throats. You're nothing, nothing. There is not a single normal person among you. All the normal ones are weeded out... Everyone is looking for bastards like you.
Sounds? Sounds! Just like a “pee” from a dead man – a “Chekhov” monologue about TV injustice from Anfisa herself (it’s a pity that a bad host was played by a bad presenter (A. Chekhova), and not a good actress, well, come on...).
And you know what I would title this monologue? The horror story of today’s childhood (or today’s day), with which we are all afraid and frightened, and we are not afraid and fearless, even curious and entertaining.
It's just like camp.
“Do you believe in demons?” The phrase that ends the film.
There are a lot of films made on the theme of reality TV and not all of them are equally worthy. Mainstim is like a drug addicted to it and you need nothing more than the pleasure of watching. And in our twenty-first century, this applies not only to entertainment, but also to fear and everything for the brain to produce adrenaline. Slasher should intrigue, cause horror, perhaps shock, and what of it is in the film. S.D.? Actually, nothing is a failed attempt by Russian cinema to tear the plot off the film "Urban Legends" and make a film in the genre of youth slasher. But right, I expected a more decent movie, the plot is interesting, but the implementation is terrible. One thing is good, because the film is an expression of what is happening in an unhealthy modern society, so everything is not so bad.
All this action begins with the fact that television decided to make a television show called Pioneer Camp. To do this, they conduct a casting where they select ten people to participate in a reality show. And that's really, really horrible.
The film consists mainly of minuses, where the actors take the first place, they do not play, but just happened to be there. As for the musical accompaniment, it is not the subject. After viewing the soul is empty, where settled one feeling - disappointment.
If you evaluate only in advance and throw one ball.
If earlier in Russia (during the USSR, of course) directors tried, and not only tried, they shot really worthwhile, good, soulful, kind films. Now our cinema keeps its way to the very bowels of the earth, rapidly burying itself in a deep hole. And all would be fine if the directors, releasing in wide distribution (although I do not understand how such "creations" go beyond the set) would just come up with a disgusting plot, based on their meager imagination. No way! Why? It is much more fun to take the finished plot, translate it into Russian (which, in fact, is also a bit weak) and break it! Break!
Now closer to the movie itself. The fact that the main plot is taken from other horror films like Friday the 13th, on the one hand, can outrage, and on the other give us hope that we will get some really scary mix of horror. But since we know about the possibilities of modern Russian directors in this genre, hope goes out like a match during a thunderstorm.
Okay. Some strange people come to the project in an abandoned camp. Although it looks like Dom 2 is about to begin (until the guy gets killed... well, don’t worry about it), the directors and actors are trying to convince us of the realism and horror of the plot. And they try so hard that everything, in general, goes to 0. The only person who does nothing at all is Anfisa Chekhov. But that seems to me to be her role.
And here they are! Murder, horror, fear. Which are also copied from other films. One was killed like that, another like that, the third got his head ripped off. Terrible. And the plot, of course, is adequate. 10 people came to the show to win a lot of money. And now they begin to kill them in turn, but instead of inventing something, they become beasts and decide that the maniac who imprisoned them here and has already killed half of them will definitely release the last one who stays and gives him money! My God! You can't look at it normally. Because every action is crazy. What panic? Let's go eat the food we found in the maniac's house. I mean, anyone would do that.
And even the musical accompaniment, which seemed still to be hoped for, apparently, along with the whole picture of S. S. D. went to the bottom. And so, perhaps a good attempt to remove the horror, which even crossed the bar “0” and made it to “1”.
1 out of 10
I would not like to begin my review with banal complaints about the poverty of Russian cinema. However, S.S.D. is almost a classic example of a bad movie. The filmmakers swung at the genre of “horror”, working with which almost always represents a walk over the abyss.
A successful thriller/horror is ideally a combination of strong plot, decent acting work and believable special effects. "S.S.D." does not please either the first or the second or the third.
Plot. The idea initially strikes with its idiocy. What is this reality show set in an abandoned pioneer camp? Why would you pay a million dollars to a winner in this show? I suppose that the creators of the picture tried to create an entourage characteristic of good representatives of the genre of horror (made in USA), events in which are often limited geographically, whether it is a gas station, an abandoned hotel or an old house. The Russian experience came out completely unsuccessful, no semantic content and integrity of the limited territory of the camp does not bring the film. More. I remember when I was a kid I had a fat black book with horror stories. Of course, my blood was frozen in my veins, but I was 10 years old! So what now? On the screen, we observe a crowd of talentless actors, all whose actions are tied to salvation from a killer maniac, a fan of these same horror stories. I confess, a couple of times I heartily laughed when I watched the played horror of the characters before the “coffin on wheels” and “cakes of people.”
Actors. To call these people actors, I can barely turn my tongue. If you want to watch acting, look at DiCaprio and Portman, but not at Anfisa Chekhov. I confess that this legendary young lady has long caused me the deepest disgust, but in "S". S.D., she is superior to herself. Her weak attempts to turn into a certain heroine on the screen do not lead to anything, she remains a lush madam with a characteristic fee. However, it is worth admitting that Chekhov, oddly enough, does not cause as much irritation as the actual participants of reality. What are all these people doing in the film industry? The game is clumsy, stupid. Some are clearly overdoing it. I think Stanislavsky would have had a stroke, look at these “actors”.
Special effects. There are no special effects. Blood from cranberry syrup and a couple of severed heads are all that can be seen in this “work of art”.
I do not like to write negative reviews and I rarely do it. S.S.D. is a bad film that I would not recommend to anyone, even as a free-time killer. I admit, a couple of moments led me into a state of hysterical laughter with its meaninglessness. I strongly do not recommend it!
The film caused conflicting feelings... But I will write a positive review. Why? Yes, simply because films of this genre are rarely shot in Russia, and in general - it is bold on the part of the creators.
I think that the film was initially doomed to not too high ratings. Because our viewer is not used to blood and dismemberment in domestic films. In general, Russian films collect the box office only if they are historical or if it is a flat comedy (preferably with someone from a comedy club).
About S.S.D.
In this picture, you should not look for a deep meaning - there is no such thing here. Although, I confess, the speech of the host about the fact that in reality TV are not normal people, I was pleased. The movie is just for fun. I can’t say for sure that I would have gone to the cinema (I watched it 2 years after the premiere), but I enjoyed watching it at home.
It's not scary. That is, it is designed to be scary, but it is more interesting to watch. By the way, I liked the actors (to be honest, S.S.D. I decided to watch because of Shmelev, Erdley and Nikolaev). Naturally, it was unusual to see them in this role: panic, murder, fear and so on – such emotions are quite difficult to play. Not all actors managed to cope with this, but, in general, the picture is not so depressing.
In general, here we see a reference to the old and familiar: Soviet camps, horror stories for the night, but directly related to modernity – clothes, reality and so on. It’s so cute that it can’t be scary anymore. I, the viewer of horrors and thrillers with experience, even the abundance of blood pleased – after all, our filmed, not overseas pros. So watch the movie! At least for the fact that this is rather an isolated case in our cinema, and not another “Best film”.
By the way, I'm adding soundtracks separately. “VIA Chappa” and “Mumiy Troll” still perform great songs.
8 out of 10
The rest - the plot, the message, the "setting" - is so hard on the teeth that it just sucks cheekbones. In addition, it is noticeable that to shoot such things to our filmmakers is new - foreign comrades such horror films turn out very juicy - with gloss, with crunch, with pleasure. SSD is made in the style of “sorry, I’m just learning”. While watching, you often catch yourself thinking, “Come on, guys, don’t screw up here, make it scary.” But, unfortunately, the guys screw up time after time. Even talking about acting is uncomfortable. In a couple of moments I liked the actor who played the boy with glasses. I guess that's it. The rest is school amateurism. Trying to bring something new to the stagnant genre of youth slasher is, of course, laudable in itself, but this time it failed. At the beginning of the film, it seemed to smell a fresh breeze, but soon it was habitually pulled by a city dump. 4 out of 10 Original