Sputnik

Director - Egor Abramenko (Polaroid Love, The Passenger)

Starring - Oksana Akinshina (Sister, Hipsters), Fedor Bondarchuk (Invasion, Stalingrad), and Pyotr Fyodorov (The Blackout, The Departed)

Release Date - 2020

Genre - Sci-Fi/Horror

Tagline - "The only survivor did not come back alone"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Sometime late last year I saw some genre friends talking about the Russian sci-fi horror flick Sputnik.  The images and trailer for this one looked really entertaining so I did a little looking and saw that it was primarily VOD only but an official release from IFC Midnight and Scream Factory was coming up early in the year so I decided to wait.  When Scream Factory sent the press release for this one I immediately jumped on it.  I requested a review copy and they were kind enough to send it over.  Thanks guys!

     The film follows the only survivor of a space mission when they suffer a catastrophic disaster.  When he returns back to Earth he is quarantined and they learn that something is living inside him.  They bring in a scientist to run some tests and she learns that it is a carnivarious in nature and leaves his body at night to feed.  The miliatry wants to use it as a weapon but she wants to separete the two in order to save the cosmonaut's life.

     I was really excited to check out this period piece sci-fi horror flick centered around Russia and the cold war.  It had a lot of different aspects that really interested me and the movie did not disappoint.  I did feel that the movie was way too long but it was still a genuinely entertaining watch.  The acting in this one is great.  The cast does a phenomenal job in their roles and really brings their characers to life.  They hold every scene and does a fantastic job at making the story progress.  I really enjoyed the characters and the cast's on screen chemistry is great.  The story for this one is a blend of horror and sci-fi that works very well.  The atmosphere just doesn't feel right for me which does affect several of the scenes and how the horror aspect is impacted.  The movie is  pretty solid and straight forward but the atmosphere and lack of tension really makes the darker and horror aspects feel out of place.  I'm sure if the film was able to actually build up some tension then these scenes would have had more impact.  Finally, the film has plenty of bloody but went the visual effects route for the more graphic scenes.  Honestly, the visuals don't look bad but the kills are definately lacking dementions.  With that being said, I was not a fan of how the creature looked.  I was thinking the entire time about how it looked like some sort of mucus monster.  It just didn't fit well with me.  Overall, Sputnik is not perfect but I really enjoyed it.  It's a pretty solid late night creature feature.  I don't see myself revisiting this one anytime soon but it was still entertaining for a first time watch.