A useless feat by Perseus Greek gods and demons are not so rare in horror movies. However, for the most part, their phenomenon lies exclusively in beautiful and mysterious-sounding names that have come to us from myths. Cute screenwriters do not hesitate to use all these Kronos, Persephone, Cerberus and other empuses, about which the audience clearly heard, but do not always imagine where and for what reason, but in the cinema it looks ... well, let it be atmospheric. From the Greek filmmakers, who took up the rethinking of the myth of Perseus and Medusa Gorgon, it was clearly not worth waiting for such frivolity. And if so, then fans of watching something unobtrusively tickling nerves from the painting by Yorgos Lazopoulos should probably stay away. Because if this "Medusa" tickles, it's only some parts of the brain that are responsible for memory. What, in fact, is supposed to do self-respecting postmodern cinema, even if it presents itself in a wrapper from a mystical thriller.
That's just what this is a thriller in which you need to chase a suspense with a lantern through the basements - and even that is not the fact that you will wait for the very "BU-U-U!". And what kind of thriller in which there is not a single more or less complex mystery: they are all thoroughly ground and packaged in bags, and if someone did not read in childhood “Myths of Ancient Greece” and can not open these bags – so the authors are not to blame. They were clearly sure that in their home country such scoundrels do not occur, and foreigners - they, as were barbarians, and remained so.
So Perseus... No, no, not Percy Jackson (or whatever), but not at all an ancient Hellenic hero, but the son of a circus actress who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This same Perseus is now found somewhere on the outskirts of Athens in a dubious company, earning a living by not the most legitimate means. From the past, he has a set of knives with which his father threw at his mother in the arena, and vague memories of a terrible incident after which he lost his parents. Now Perseus and a group of friends plan to sneak into the abandoned house where he spent his childhood to unravel the mystery of the woman hiding there in black, who reminded him of the past. And the viewer - about the films of the magnificent Nikos Nicolaides.
Meanwhile, the police are searching in vain for a connection between the appearance of stone statues in various places and the disappearance of their prototypes from these very places. Apparently, the police at the school did not study well and about the sisters Medusa pretty much forgotten, so Perseus and friends no one further interfered under his feet. Perseus' friends, however, soon stopped interfering (had anyone heard of them in the myth?), except for Andromeda. But here the film with the myth diverges simply categorically. Otherwise, I’m sorry, it would no longer be postmodernism with double overtones (oh, to find it more – this subtext), but a banal retelling of the ancient legend in a modern way. It is clear that Andromeda was in another story about Perseus – but it does not matter at all, but the fact that Medusa (who said “Dragon?”) is immortal raises the suspicion that Cyrus Lazaropoulos read Eugene Schwartz (I wonder if they translated him into Greek?).
Here are the classic horrors of the Greek director, if he watched, they left him deeply indifferent, because despite the gloomy halo of petrified people and the mystical mystery of Medusa, he decidedly refused to frighten the viewer, presenting the action in the form of a strange surreal picture. Call it “horror” can only be with the same fear that experienced Soviet critics of the 80s, including this genre “Lord of the designer” Oleg Teptsov. Here with him, “Medusa” will have much more in common, but here the comparison will clearly not be in favor of the Greek film. Lazopoulos was clearly hampered by the desire to at least slightly, but bring the picture closer to the mass viewer, adding a little action to the static canvas. The action refused to add, but knocked off the mood. As for the secrets of Polishinel, finally revealed in the final - it was already completely unnecessary. One thing - albeit transparent, but hints that leave a bit of ancient mystery. And quite another - the mediocre denouement of the third-rate "horror", from which the film furiously denied all previous action.
However, if it were otherwise, we would probably talk more about the picture. But Lazopoulos is clearly not Nicolaidis - he failed to withstand the style from beginning to end, but not all of them to shoot masterpieces. And for all its shortcomings, "Medusa" is a good movie, and most importantly - original. Therefore, fans of digging into the “Dark Side” in search of forgotten artifacts should spend a little time to brush off the dust, which did not accumulate so much for 15 years.