Cold-hearted and stoney faced Mara, Maryna Koshkina (Oxana, The Forgotten), leads a crack Ukrainian military team into underground spaces which have been uncovered as a result of Russian forces blowing up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam (apparently a true event from 2023).
There, in secret Soviet bunkers under the dam, she is trying to find her long-lost brother. Made tricky (as we head into fantasy, not fact) by the place being full of zombies, created by Russian projects to create physically super-human and psychically capable soldiers - male and female!
The idea being that the super strong males can crush enemies like a Godzilla and the females can 'think' dreadful things to happen to them with it coming true! We do see much of this all happening later in the film as it goes into bonkers territory! Given that small budget, the zombie creatures actually look pretty good and well-imagined. I wouldn't say particularly scary, but quite well-done - as our crack team discover that a bullet through the head kills them once and for all. Trouble is that there are more of them than they have bullets for, so cunning strategy is needed too!
In the middle of this they find a nerdy and somewhat comic Russian scientist who has been responsible for the experiments, so they give him a hard time (as you'd imagine) but keep him alive as hostage to be their guide through the maze of bunker corridors and levels. He takes the opportunity, whilst not gagged, to explain what he was up to and how great Russia is/was and how what they have been doing is right and justified. The team soon get fed up with that!
It all sounds a bit bonkers - and to large degree it is - macho-men with huge guns, zombies being taken out left, right and centre (and later on 'exploded' by thought, which is fun) and all set to in-your-face rock music! But actually, I really quite enjoyed it. You'd have to be in the right mood of course, few beers, but the 1 hour and 40 minutes flew by as director Alexey Taranenko keeps viewers on their toes, edge of the seat, wondering what on earth is likely to be around the next corner!
Built to a budget, so don't expect spankingly good special effects, but what they have done here with the money and under difficult circumstances is really very impressive. The pacing of the action is good, the script is alright, the storyline bozo (of course) and actors (none of whom I know) seem to certainly do a decent-enough job. All good fun, but yes, there certainly is a hard-line message behind it which it pulls no punches in putting out there.
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