Movie Review: Sputnik (Russian)

If anything, Egor Abramenko's Sputnik doesn't reinvent the sci-fi horror wheel set in motion previously with movies like Alien and The Thing. But what it does, it does fairly well, turning out to be an atmospheric 80's Soviet era chiller about a lone survivor of a spaceship incident who has returned to Earth not as one person but hiding an extraterrestrial being inside his oesophagus which, besides preying on fear, is a parasite capable of developing a symbiotic relationship with its host. It's no wonder, then, Colonel Semiradov wants to use the slithering beast as a bioweapon. Backed by striking cinematography and an austere production design, this creature flick mines its thrills from disquieting set pieces that starts out gripping before eschewing its eerie slow-burn tension for something more familiar — Cold War paranoia and the capability of humans to inflict untold cruelty (in other words, the "real" monsters) — leading to a weak third act that the film never fully recovers from. Luckily, the performances and characterisations add heft.