Rusys (2014) Reviews

• There's a reason why this is the only review. Nobody saw the movie.

  karolisd2014-11-22

  It's really hard to talk about the plot of "The Cellar", because it barely has any. It's a movie that had a lot of "deep" ideas, yet nothing to interest the viewer. You can almost summarize it like this: nothing happens for a good hour, then some things happen, but you really don't care. "Rūsys" (or "The Cellar") is a movie that failed in every possible way. It had questionable cinematography, uneven editing, mediocre direction, poor writing, subpar acting, no real protagonist and zero character development. Rūsys as a movie simply didn't work, despite the efforts. And it wasn't like I was let down due to the expectations I had for the movie. It is hard to be disappointed when your expectations are so low that they are basically next to zero. I mean, literally, Rūsys was a movie that nobody wanted to see. When the movie was first announced, it was to be the first Lithuanian horror movie. But as soon as people realized it was going to be a found footage movie, general interest in the movie dropped significantly. I mean, if you're making a horror movie, why make it a found footage one? That trend got old real fast. I know horror movies are meant to be low-budget cash-grabs, but why not film it in a way that audiences find satisfying? And it wasn't just the found footage factor that made the movie so unpopular with the audience. A very uninteresting premise contributed too. While any story can be successfully made into a movie as long as it is told well, this was not the case. You could really tell that the movie was going to be a mess simply from its marketing. At first it was marketed as a psychological horror film. I don't know about you, but the word "psychology" in the context of a horror movie to me generally indicates that movie will be neither scary, nor very "psychological". I guess the producer (producers?) realized that the movie's a mess, so later they marketed it as a "psychological horror thriller". And then they invented the "world's first smart movie" idea just so that they would have a shot at getting at least some of their investments in the movie back. It didn't work that well, obviously. And now about the plot. About fifteen minutes into the movie I started to feel a certain David Lynch vibe in the film. That's actually the reason why I rated it two stars, not one. The movie didn't have any frightening scenes, only ones that were slightly disturbing in a very lynchesque way (actually those scenes could be successfully used to scrap together a 5 minute surrealist short film). Plotwise, nothing happened throughout the whole movie and then the flick did a plot twist that's the biggest "F" you to the audience. Apparently it was all a dream of a woman in coma. In most cases, that's the absolute worst way to end a film (this rule obviously doesn't apply to Lynch and Fellini). And now I'm pretty sure how the movie was made. The director (and apparently the executive producer, who wrote the script), being a fan of David Lynch, wanted to make his own version of Mulholland Dr.; people who financed the film, wanting to produce a highly profitable product, meant to produce a quick summer horror flick. Combine those two ideas and what you get is a flop. Both financially and critically. Yes, Rūsys is pretty bad, but definitely not the worst film ever. Actually, it's not much worse than the expensive mess that was "Tadas Blinda. Pradzia". Also, it didn't star Lithuanian movie favourite, Mantas Jankavicius. That's a plus. The dude can't act. Simply put, "Rūsys" is a movie that should not have been made in the first place.