Boo! Terrible stories about ghosts and other evil forces always cause delight and horror in people, and if they are associated with familiar and native places or things, they become more terrifying.
“Kuluk Homus” is a Yakut horror film by a young director Petr Struchkov, who is trying to revive our favorite genre with all his might.
Did he succeed? Let's get this straight.
Pros of
The undoubted and main plus of the film is its picture, cinematography and editing. The monotonous gray that the cameraman uses is really good for the place and creates a gloomy atmosphere in the village, in the house and in the woods where the main events of the film take place. The transitions between the scenes are very smooth, which pleases the eye, there is no effect of a shaking camera, which Yakut directors like to use so much. Separate praise for a perfectly shot sunset, it was a really beautiful shot!
+Sound. The emphasis of the creators on small sounds is very correct, all these creaks, tapping on wood, wind noise and other small details work only in favor of the film, thereby creating a terrible atmosphere for the viewer.
Cons of
- Screenplay. That's the downside of the movie. It would seem that the plot built around the mysterious homus, which came from ancient times, and the spirit associated with it should be very intriguing. But in the end, the whole story is told superficially to the viewer, spending more time with various “terrible tricks” & #39;. In the film, there are a lot of scenes built according to the formula 'location - character - scare' and which do not move the plot and do not reveal the characters, unnecessarily delaying the timekeeping. Each scene can be presented as a separate short film. In addition, there is no real explanation: where and why did a single beautiful girl move to the old village? What's the story with her sister? Why did she suddenly start dating the first person she met? Why is dangerous homus stored in a public place? Why didn't the guy's dad beat him right away? And such small questions in the course of viewing are collected a lot, which negatively affects the perception of the film.
- Characters. The actors’ play is not bad, but the characters themselves are very poorly written due to the script. Here's a pretty pretty girl, here's a nice brave country boy, here's a weird little girl. That's all. The film clearly lacks simple emotional scenes that would connect the viewer with the character, thereby making him empathize with or fear for him. In the film, there are makeup for such scenes, but for some reason they immediately stop, as if the creators were constantly worried about the fact that the viewer will forget that they are watching a horror film, not a drama.
So, 'Homus Fist' is a relatively good horror movie! If you watch it without asking questions, it will come to you and can scare you. And if you start digging deeper and try to understand the meaning of the film, you will be a little disappointed. But it is worth paying tribute: for a young aspiring director, this is a very good and worthwhile film!
6 out of 10