No cliché is left unused in this fun haunted house hokum.
From being all but unheard of in the Soviet and early post-Soviet eras, Russian cinematic horror has become the new trend to watch and one that is drawing fresh blood into the business. On top of that, the chills and spills of this genre give the Russian learner an easier ride than more involved stories.
This scary dark old house potboiler forms part of a franchise. Three years ago Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite set the scene. Produced by Russian horror doyen Svyatoslav Podgaevsky this, despite name checking a famous 1834 story by Pushkin, introduced a murderous spectral woman, tall, black clad, with a veil and a penchant for hair cutting. Rather like Clive Barker’s 1992 Candyman, this ghoul can be summoned should you call her three times into a mirror with a door and stairs drawn on it.Following a lead taken by The Conjuring, Queen of Spades: The Looking Glass recycles this adversary but with a different story, different cast – and a new director.
Horror veterans.
Thirty year old Aleksandr Domogarov was on clapboard duties. Two years earlier he had produced a short film –Poostitye Deti – based on a Stephen King tale.
Likewise the producers Konstantin Buslov and Dmitry Litvinov have dipped their toes in horror before with Konvert/ The Envelope (2017) and Rassvet/Dawn (2019) respectively (both reviewed below).
Even the main star, one Angelina Stretchina – the ballsy malcontent at the centre of it all – has previous horror form. She also stars in Gosti/Guests from this year, another ghost yarn (although one hard to come across in the cinemas).
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A young boy and his older sister lose their mother in a car accident (an unnerving event which opens the film). This results in the bereaved pair being sent away to a boarding school located in a former orphanage and deep in the woods. (In fact the filming took place in the Nahabino district of Moscow, known for its golfing links and country club).
The girl, Olya (Stretchina) is busy trying to find a way to make her escape while her brother, Artyom, (Danil Isotov) keeps having visions of his mother.
Before long this pranksome crew break into a forbidden part of the school, an attic, in which they find a mirror with a door and staircase drawn on it….
Having been released the Queen of Spades grants the kids some of their wishes. The boy with awkward parents finds that they commit suicide, the fat girl cannot eat without finding maggots in her food and Artyom gets his mother back, sort of….
Boo!
As with the somewhat derided The Nun from last year there is much reliance on startling appearances often in the form of a silhouette seen in the distance or through tarpaulin left around by building renovators. These jump scares have this in their defence: they at least represent the work of actors and directors and not computer image manipulations.
The intricate, musty olde-worlde set had been well thought out and contrasts with the modern block of flats locale of the first movie. The dark romance of it all is then augmented by a quasi-classical score courtesy of the now L.A based Sergei Stein.
Bubblegum.
The film seems preoccupied with death and loss (as was Rassvet and Provodnik, as well as any number of horror flicks) and there exists a possible metaphor around mirrors and how they can reflect our darker selves. Furthermore, some of the characterisation is less predictable than might be expected – a male teacher turns out to be a decent sort, for example.
This is a romp, however, a high jinx Halloween party and does not elicit tears or laughter but just burrows itself down into the haunted house subgenre.
This pantomime will not haunt me, but the posse of teens who turned up to the showing got what they had come for.